Thank you for visiting our site!
We have a new motto at Temple Menorah:
Add your Light to Ours. Be. Here.
Every person – specifically you! – has an inner light – a n’tzitzah – a divine spark. What I meant when I wrote those words is an invitation for you to add your light to our lovely menorah (lamp).
Temple Menorah’s “open tent” community means that Everyone Belongs. Our tradition teaches us that all human beings – with no exceptions – are created “b’tzelem Elohim” – in the image of God.
Founded 80 years ago, Temple Menorah has been an uninterrupted center for Jewish life in the South Bay, providing generations of congregants with a “second home.”
As you click around on our site, you’ll learn all about programs that are designed for you. However you practice your Judaism, you’ll find friends here to elevate your experience. Some of our congregants deepen into Shabbat at our weekly Friday night and Saturday morning services. Some come together to share blessings around the dinner table at our home-hosted Shabbat Across Menorah events.
Some congregants connect by cooking and serving food together or by participating with our Social Action Committee and Mitzvah Days. Some love our Adult Education programs: Adult B’nai Mitzvah, Adult Confirmation, Community Book Club, Lunch and Learns, Creative Aging, or yoga and meditation events.
Temple Menorah’s children attend our Tuvia Preschool, Jewish Life and Learning Education programs, summer camps, and special holiday programming. Our teens attend our B’nai Mitzvah program, Tichon, Madrichim program, and clergy-led Confirmation classes. Each of these programs infuses our kids with learning, pride, opportunities to make lifelong Jewish friends and having a lot of fun!
Our congregation represents the spectrum of life experiences: We are singles, we are families; we were raised in Jewish communities, we are Jews by choice. We are non-binary, trans, or gender fluid. Some of us read Hebrew; some don’t. Some of us identify as “spiritual” more than “religious.” We come to our Judaism from many different perspectives: cultural, theological, ancestral, individual, inter-faith, seeking, and social.
But, we all find real value in “doing Jewish” together – in a warm, welcoming, non-judgmental, and deeply caring community.
And don’t feel intimidated if you’re new! I’m new here, too! We can get to know the Temple Menorah community together.
Adding your light to Temple Menorah doesn’t just mean that you can “be here.” It means that you can “Be. Here.” Be who you already are – bring your joys and your struggles, your questions and your doubts, your gifts and your needs.
We can’t wait to meet you.
