Welcome! Temple House of Israel is a Reform Jewish congregation in Staunton Virginia with members from Staunton and surrounding towns and counties. We also welcome students from the several college campuses in our area.
Learn about us, read about our history and what’s new in our bulletin, see our calendar, meet Rabbi Joe Blair, find interesting links, get directions, or learn how to contact us. You can click here to view some of Rabbi Joe’s responses to issues of Jewish values, ethics, morals, and derekh eretz (proper behavior/Jewish etiquette).
Yom HaShoah in 2013 will be commemorated the evening of April 7th. Look for more information about the commemoration event on that date, and for other events in the Shenandoah Valley Holocaust Education Project calendar of events during the period of April 7-14 2013, and additional events in May.
We have several events scheduled as part of the Shenandoah Valley Holocaust Education Project. First, on April 7th at 7 pm, there is the community commemoration at Temple House of Israel in Staunton. At this event, the team of students that took part in the regional play competition will be presenting Who Returned My Soul, an award winning play by Kelly Brock. In this play, the students act the part of several suvivors and share their stories. Following the performance, the teachers and students will offer a Talkback with the audience. Not to be missed!
The second event is a Meet the Author event. It will take place on Sunday, April 14th at 4 pm at Beth El Congregation in Harrisonburg. Mr. Robert Gillette wrote this book on The Virginia Plan, an attempt to save Jewish German youths by bringing them to Louisa county to farm. There were some successes before the plan was thwarted by the closing of the borders of Germany. One of the main players in this story was Mr. Thalheimer or Richmond Virginia, associated with the department store of the same name.
A third event will be on May 12th at 4 pm. This will be a screening of the documentary Misa’s Fugue, with a discussion by writer and producer Jennifer Goss. More details will be forthcoming soon.
Other events are in the works – please check back here, and visit the calendar. We hope that you will attend all these events.