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A small way to make a big difference. We accept check and venmo donations. One Time Donations If you would like to support us, please consider making a donation. If you are a new or current CBY member DO NOT submit your annual membership dues here, see below. Amount $ 0/225 Comment (optional) Donate Membership Dues 1 2 3 First, Select which membership option is best for you and your family. Single (1 Member) $500 Family (2+ Members) $850 Student $150 Intro Rate First Year $200 Please fill out and submit your details in our Membership Form Complete your payment plan via Venmo or Check. Installments are welcome. Venmo In the description of your payment, please Include the Following: Full Name Membership Description Installment Number Please make all checks payable to: Chavurah B’Yachad P.O. Box 9115 Salt Lake City, Utah 84109 Check 4 Confirm your payment plan via email to chavurahbyachad@gmail.com . Please detail how many installments you will be making (if applicable).

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High Holy Days 5786 Chavurah B'yachad is very excited to welcome you into the new year with plenty of rich programming. Please join us for any and all events! Shanah Tovah! L'Shanah Tovah! Erev Rosh Ha'Shanah Sept 22nd 6:30p - 8:30p Service followed by Festive Oneg: “The Great Honeycake Taste Off!” Rosh Ha'Shanah Morning Sept 23rd 9:00 Children’s service 9:30 Shacharit, Torah, & Shofar service, followed by a light kiddush 1:00pm - Tashlich Kol Nidrei Oct 1st 6:30 Service & Meditations Bring a tallit if you have one. Yom Kippur Morning Oct 2nd 9:00 Children’s service 9:30 Shacharit and Torah service Yom Kippur Afternoon Oct 2nd 5:30 - Yizkor (Memorial) service followed by Neilah (Closing) service, followed by vegetarian potluck Break-Fast and Havdalah. Sukkot Lunch October 11 1:00 - Potluck Vegetarian Lunch 3:00 - Torah Study "Kohelet." Bring a Tanakh if you have one. Free Registration First name* Last name* Email* How many will you be? Events Erev Rosh HaShanah Rosh HaShanah Morning Kol Nidrei Yom Kippur Sukkot Register

Thank you, Donor Name We are so grateful for your generous donation of $0. Your donation number is #1000. You’ll receive a confirmation email soon.

What goes into a CBY Shabbat? We believe that a great shabbat evening must have three core elements. The rest is commentary. 1 Something Familiar Whether it is a tune from your childhood or your grandmother's special recipe, our shabbat would not be complete without a slice of nostalgia to make you feel comfortable. 2 Something New Reconstructing Judaism means we must re-examine and re-engage with ritual in new ways. This could mean diving deeper into the Hebrew, sharing a relevant poem or English song, or even leading a parsha-based discussion. We want you to challenge us. 3 Something You As a lay-led congregation, we are incomplete without your individuality. Your unique leadership will make this shabbat unlike any other. We are so excited for you to take us on a Shabbat Journey. If you don't know where to start your process, please take a look at what folks have done in the past for some inspiration. Get Started Instructions At-Home

Judaism as the Culture of the Jewish People To us, Judaism is more than religion; Judaism is the entire cultural legacy of the Jewish people. Religion and tradition are central; Jewish spiritual insights and religious teachings give meaning and purpose to our lives. Jewish creativity as expressed through art, music and drama, languages and literature — and our relationship with the land of Israel—all are integral parts of Jewish culture. Each of these aspects provides a gateway into the Jewish experience that can enrich and inspire our lives today. Community as a Cornerstone While deeply connected to the historical experience of the Jewish people, we find a profound sense of belonging in our contemporary communities as well. This connection often leads to ritual observance along with experimentation within the ritual rhythms of Jewish life. We find meaning in rediscovering the richness of tradition and in creating new observances that respond to our contemporary communal and personal cycles. Like other communities that embrace Reconstructing Judaism, CBY is characterized by our respect for such core values as democratic process, social justice, and inclusion. In this way, we create a participatory, egalitarian community committed to exploring Jewish life with dedication, warmth, and enthusiasm. Following our participatory approach, our Shabbat services are mostly lay-led. We do a lot of singing and talking together during the service as a way to create a spiritual community that transcends the individual. We arrange for a rabbi to lead holiday services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Patterns of Practice “Torah” means “teaching.” In Jewish tradition, Talmud Torah, the study of Torah, is a life-long obligation and opportunity. Reconstructionists are committed to serious engagement with the texts and teachings, as well as the art, literature, and music of tradition. But we are not passive recipients; we are instead challenged to enter the conversation of the generations, to hear voices other than our own, and to add our own voices as well. Reconstructing Judaism is respectful of traditional Jewish observances but also open to new interpretations and forms of religious expression. Reconstructionists share a commitment to making Judaism our own by finding in it joy, meaning, and ideas we can believe and put into daily practice. Ethics and Values Reconstructionist communities emphasize acts of social justice alongside prayer and study as an essential part of their spiritual practice. Reconstructionist Judaism affirms that religion can and must be a powerful force for promoting communal discussion about ethics and values. We feel ethically obliged to engage in regular acts of social justice such as feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, supporting the LGBTQ+ community, and preserving the health of our environment for the betterment of all.

Are you interested in joining us? With low membership dues, we welcome new members to our Chavurah at any point in the year. If you have any questions about membership, please contact the president by sending an email using the "contact us" form. Click the paperclip icon to download the membership form Chavurah B’Yachad P.O. Box 9115 Salt Lake City, Utah 84109 Contact us! First name* Last name* Email* Your Message * Submit

Reconstructing Judaism Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983) chose the name “Reconstructionism” in the 1920s to communicate that Judaism itself—its structure, beliefs, rituals, customs and culture—must be “reconstructed” in each generation to renew its relevance and ensure its sustainability. We are proud to carry on Kaplan’s legacy of grounded, purposeful and brave innovation. Reconstructionists approach Judaism—and life—with deep consideration of the past and a passion to relate it to the present. Applying our understanding of Judaism as the evolving religious civilization of the Jewish people, we draw from the rich wellsprings of Jewish tradition to face the challenges and opportunities of the current moment. In keeping with that evolution, in 1922, Kaplan’s daughter, Judith, was the first young woman in America to become a bat mitzvah. Reconstructionism grew into the fourth movement in North American Judaism (along with Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform) with the founding of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1968. Following Kaplan’s lead, we continually work to expand the boundaries of the Jewish community without watering down what it means to be Jewish. Reconstructionists hold diverse ideas about God, but we share an emphasis on Godliness –those hopes, beliefs, and values within us that impel us to work for a better world, that give us strength and solace in times of need, that challenge us to grow, and that deepen our joy in moments of celebration. Reconstructionist prayerbooks speak of God beyond male/female gender concepts and the traditional metaphor of “king of the universe.” For example, in our prayerbooks, God is addressed as, among other things, “The Healer,” “The Teacher,” “The Comforter,” and “The Presence.” We are engaged in the spiritual adventure of discovering the many attributes of the one God. A Reconstructionist approach is infused by commitments to: Learning from the vast storehouse of Jewish wisdom and practice while understanding that the past has a vote , not a veto; Openness to insights from contemporary society , especially democratic practice and commitments to advancing equity; Thinking, dreaming and making decisions in conversation with community —the community gathered around us today, the voices of our ancestors, and, as best as we can anticipate, the needs and aspirations of the communities of tomorrow; Feeling empowered to reconstruct and co-create rituals , practices, texts and more in order to build the Jewish community we want to live in To be a Reconstructionist, you need not subscribe to a particular position on Israel and Palestine — or any other issue. What is needed is a “capacity to center relationships and to build covenantal community across differences.” Reconstructionism helps individuals find and create their own pathways toward meaningful Jewish living. Reconstructionist communities share and create new ways of being Jewish to connect us to the divine and to each other and to ensure our lives are filled with purpose. We believe that we find our humanity most powerfully in communal conversation. We are clear that the Jewish community must make space for all individuals in our fullness and that in doing so, the community itself will be continually renewed and remade.

Our Mission Reconstructionist Judaism cultivates and supports Jewish living, learning, and practice in a changing world. We are guided by our commitment to being an inclusive, largely lay-led, community-oriented, egalitarian congregation, as well as to building a more compassionate world for everyone. When a dozen Salt Lake City families met in 1986 to create an alternative Jewish worship community in Salt Lake City, we hadn’t even heard of the Reconstructionist movement. But when we went looking, this progressive branch of Judaism proved the perfect fit. The founders wrote Chavurah B’Yachad’s original bylaws to stress inclusivity. For us, full equality for women, interfaith families, and LGBTQ+ Jews was a given, a straightforward embodiment of civil rights. At the time, rabbis and cantors could (and did) lose their jobs when their queer identity was discovered. CBY was ahead of the Reconstructionist movement, which took another six years to endorse equality of gays and lesbians. Initially, our small group met in people's homes, even for the High Holidays and Passover. Over the years, we have met in spaces belonging to Lutherans, Episcopalians, Quakers, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the JCC. From 2008-2024, Congregation Kol Ami rented us space for our monthly meetings. In 2025, we found a good match at the warm and welcoming McGillis School. When we read from the Torah at services and at B’nai Mitzvot, we read from our own Torah, a retired military scroll purchased in 1998.

Youth Education With CBY As of 2025, CBY remains a lay-led community organization. To create a youth education plan, a small group of parents developed The Four Pillars of Youth Education, which are detailed below. Pillar 1: B’nai Mitzvot. Student learning will culminate in a Friday night service led by the B’nai Mitzvah student with the support of the community and their families, which will include Torah reading and a D’var Torah. Pillar 2: Social Justice. As part of their B’nai Mitzvah, the student will identify a project, with help of the social justice committee. Pillar 3: Understanding Jewish culture, values and community. Parents will rotate leading lessons and activities that highlight different aspects of Jewish culture, values, identity and life. CBY members will contribute significantly to help lead discussions for the youth. Pillar 4: Learning Hebrew: Interested parents will find and pay for a Hebrew tutor outside of CBY.

Member's Whatsapp Welcome to the future! We are proud to launch our "Members Only Whatsapp" to fulfill all your networking and socializing needs. This will serve as the nexus for all informal and formal dialogue. From political debates to sharing recipes to discussing committee business, we have plenty of channels to accomodate all your communication needs. All you need to do is download the app and then scan the QR code or click the green logo below. What are you waiting for? Join the conversation today!