B'Yachad

B’yachad, which means “together,” is the social heart of Temple Emeth. We plan, execute, and support activities and events that are of interest to all Temple members. Historically, B’yachad has been a combined Brotherhood and Sisterhood designed to “help achieve the religious, charitable, social, and educational goals of Temple Emeth.”

B’YACHAD Activities Include:

Social Events: We run various social events to build our congregational community, including: Family Outings; Minor League Baseball Games; Comedy Night; Artist-in-Residence; Middle Eastern Cooking; Opera events; Paint Night; Klezmer Concerts; Israeli Dancing and more! Of course, each event includes a meal/nosh and time for kibitzing and socializing.

Sunday Morning Breakfast Meetings: We have B’yachad Breakfasts, where our Temple community gets together for an informative presentation and lively discussion, while enjoying a bagel breakfast. Recent speakers/topics have included: Artist Andrea Strongwater, who presented Lost Synagogues of Europe; Rabbi Sirbu, who discussed Lessons from the Pandemic; Tom Meyers, who presented The History of Jews in the New Jersey Film Industry; Temple member Sam Gronner, who discussed his book, Loss & Legacy: The Half-Century Quest to Reclaim a Birthright Stolen by the Nazis; Historian Marty Schneit, who presented The Borscht Belt and The Lower East Side; and High School Student Laurence Fine, who presented on Youth Activism in Gun Violence Protection.

Please Note: We are looking forward to continuing our breakfast events in-person in the synagogue with bagels in the near future!

Please save the dates for our Sunday Breakfasts:
October 23, 2022 B'yachad will screen the documentary, 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus. In early 1939, as conditions were worsening for Jews living inside Nazi Germany, a Philadelphia couple, Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, embarked on a risky and improbable mission to rescue 50 Jewish children from Nazi Germany and bring them to safety in the United States.

This B'yachad program is presented in conjunction with our One Book, One Synagogue book, The Book of Lost Names by Kristen Harmel." This hybrid event will be held in the Social Hall and simultaneously shown on Zoom, with a discussion following the film.

January 22, 2023 at 9:00 a.m. B'yachad presents Jews and Comic Books. Mention Jewish comics and most people conjure up images of Jerry Seinfeld, Joan Rivers, Gilbert Gottfried and David Brenner. But this is about Jewish comic books and the people who created them: people with names like Siegel, Shuster, Lieber, Simon, Kurtzberg, Finger and Kahn—better known as Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Stan Lee, Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Bill Finger and Bob Kane—the creators of Superman, Batman, Captain America, Spider-Man, the XMen and many more.

Pop Culture historian and Temple Emeth member David Levin will bring his knowledge of this history for an informal talk on these creators, their influences, their legacies, and their work. David Levin is the producer of Pop Goes the Culture and has produced and directed numerous documentaries on pop culture for MTV, Discovery, A&E and many other networks. He also is the author of MTV Uncensored and a Superman comic thought to be one of the rarest to be published in the past 40 years.

July 9, 2023 at 10:30 a.m. B'yachad will offer American Jewish History in Eight Synagogues. Starting with the historic 1763 Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island (the oldest American synagogue building still standing), we can actually track our hisotry in America through our synagogues. In honor of our nation's birthday, Eitan Kastner will take us through slides and stories of eight significant congregations and their buildings that reflect our own growing and ever-changing history.

A graduate of Yeshiva University, Kastner earned his masters degree at the University o f Chicago, focusing primarily on American religious history. He shares that knowledge on a regular basis, teaching history and art history at Frisch and working as a licensed New York City tour guide, leading excursions with Jewish and historical themes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Fundraising and Donations
Contributions to B'yachad have been used to help the Religious School, provide gifts to the Confirmation Class and B’nai Mitzvot, Youth Scholarships, RAC Trip, Sukkah building and decorations, and to other Temple and community events.

We welcome your ideas, comments and thoughts, especially suggestions for future Breakfast Speakers and events. Thank you for your continued support.

Email us at byachad@emeth.org.