Join Beth Jacob Synagogue for our annual Purim Party! Come to enjoy Hebrew, Yiddish, and klezmer music, make crafts with the kids, and enjoy an English/Hebrew hybrid reading of the megillah!

This year will be a potluck-style dinner. Bring your favorite veggie or dairy dish to share!

Beverages and hamantaschen will be served. Registration is encouraged

In partnership with PJ Library in Vermont

Purim Celebration!

Purim is coming soon! Join us Monday, March 2nd at 6:00 PM for Chabad of Stowe's Purim party!

There will be an aminated reading of the megillah led by Rabbi Simon and punctuated by our loudest Haman booing. Then we'll partake in a Purim feast fit for royalty. On Purim the goal is to be as joyful as possible and with games, crafts, drinks, costumes, and music, our party will be rocking. There will be delicious Hamantaschen that bring you back to childhood and a Mishloach Manot station so you can make a Purim gift for a friend. Let's turn our worlds upside down for an evening- in the best way possible!

This event is free to attend. Please RSVP at sara@chabadofstowe.com

Join JCOGS for a meaningful discussion of "Just Mercy," by Bryan Stevenson, led by Rabbi David alongside community members who took part in an interfaith civil rights trip

Info

The holiday of Tu BiShvat—the time when, in Jewish tradition, the trees become another year older—falls halfway between the winter solstice and spring equinox. Join us to honor this moment of renewal and consider how we can live in deeper reciprocity with the natural world while we explore the land at Living Tree.

Due to extreme cold in the weather forecast, we’ll be primarily gathering indoors.

• 2–3 p.m.: Outdoor winter fun (optional). For those who love the cold: sledding and skiing in the field! Melanie will be at the sledding hill, and Sephirah will guide a ski loop for anyone who wants to get their winter adventure in first.

• 3 p.m.: Indoor Tu BiShvat journey at the Common House.

  Come in from the cold for an experiential journey through the four worlds of the Tu BiShvat seder. We'll connect to environmental stewardship, the trees, and our local landscape through story, song, seasonal fruits, and reflection. We'll end with a sound bath, and then step outside for a little tree time before gathering around the fire with hot chocolate, hemlock tea, and birthday cake for the trees

  We’re thrilled to be joined by special guest Shamu Sadeh, lead educator and director of the Adamah Fellowship program at Isabella Freedman.

• What to bring (if participating in outdoor fun):

• Warm layers for outdoor activities

• Sleds, skis, or snowshoes (if you have them)

• Snowshoes available for rent at Clearwater Sports

In partnership with PJ Library in Vermont

Join Living Tree Alliance and Moretown Library for a joyful midwinter gathering honoring the trees and the deep roots that sustain us through the cold season. Perfect for families with children ages 2–5, this celebration brings together song, craft-making, and connection to the natural world.

Tu BiShvat is a Jewish holiday known as the birthday of the trees. This celebration of trees, seasons, and our connection to the earth is open to families of all faiths and backgrounds who value nature and want to share that wonder with their children.

Family & Friends Service with Beth Jacob!

Join Rabbi David in song as our JCOGS and Beth Jacob families and Hebrew Schools come together at Beth Jacob Synagogue (10 Harrison Ave, Montpelier). Lite kiddush brunch to follow!

Register here

Join Beth Jacob for a Tu B'Shvat Seder led by Rabbi Shana Margolin at 2:00pm. Registration is encouraged.

Creating Spiritual Journeys workshop will be focusing on Spiritually Navigating Uncertainty. In our text study, we will explore how the Jewish calendar is a living system, shaped by human responsibility. 

We’re looking forward to being together! The next session will be March 22 on Jewish Prayer: Journeys of the Heart and Soul.

Please click this link to register for this class. Please let me know if you are planning to attend.

Join JCOGS & PJ Library in VT for a Tu b'Shvat themed morning with a magical puppet show by puppeteer Anna Sobel, an interactive storytime, music, crafts, and snacks. The puppet show, "Fairies of the Season", explores the changing of our world each calendar year. Every season has unique qualities: the trees look different, different kinds of plants are growing, and people wear and do different things. In this show, set on a handmade dress that twirls as the year turns, each season has its own fairy that takes care of changing the natural world accordingly. Family-friendly, all are welcome!

Musical Shabbat and special talk by Rabbi Michael Cohen. After the service, stay for a catered oneg (RSVP below) and Q&A with Rabbi Cohen.

6-7:15pm Musical Shabbat Service with special talk by Rabbi Michael Cohen

7:15-8:30pm Catered Oneg Dinner and Q&A with Rabbi Michael Cohen. Menu highlights: Rubbed Salmon and Winter Salads

30 years ago the doors of the Arava Institute opend on Kibbutz Ketura. Since then it has brought together Israelis (Jews & Arabs), Palestinians, Jordanians, Moroccans and other college age students from around the world to study and live together.

Register by January 19

Each JCOGS Tikkun Olam committee or initiative is being encouraged to identify or lead a project that reflects their passions, connections, and interests, while fostering collaboration within the broader community whenever possible, and some have already begun. We are looking to address all of the topics generated in our plan for this calendar year! It’s a chance for the whole JCOGS community to come together in service and honor Dr. King’s legacy.

If you’d like to get involved, email jcogs@jcogs.org with your ideas, interests, or ways you can help. Once you email, we can get you connected with a project or initiative. You don’t need to attend in person—any contribution counts!

9:00 AM-12:00 PM | UCC Morrisville
Prep Activities for Homelessness Awareness Day 
1:00–2:30 PM | UCC Morrisville
Community Hospitality – Share lunch and music as part of the UCC resource center
2:30–5:00 PM | JCOGS
Chesed (Kindness in Action) – Visits, calls, and care-based outreach
Cook for Lamoille Community House – Prepare meals for neighbors in need
Cooking & Baking with Kids – Family-friendly service
Draft Dodgers – Make door/window draft stoppers to use or donate (collection box in JCOGS lobby for scrap material donations) 
Tikkun Ha’Bayit – Clean-up and small repairs around JCOGS
USCRI Donations Sorting – Support refugees & immigrants—see below for items needed
Rainbow Coalition Art Project – Create blessing cards for our youth

5:00–6:15 PM | JCOGS
Community Soup Supper – Vegetarian soups, bread, and dessert, with brief clergy reflections on Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham Jail.
Come for one project or stay all day.

Join the folks from Beth Jacob Synagogue for a nature snowshoe walk on one of the many trails at North Branch Nature Center. Learn about native animals of the area, learn back tracking skills, and enjoy the immersion in nature during this Tu B'Shvat season.

*This is a snowshoe trail, not a walking trail. The use of shoes is prohibited on these trails.

In partnership with PJ Library in Vermont

Join Rabbi Tobie Weisman of YFL Creating Soulful Journeys in Cultivating Spiritual Attunement is the third of 8 monthly sessions, we will explore how Torah (Jewish wisdom) frames time as a sacred dimension of Jewish life, engaging classical and modern sources to examine how days, seasons, and cycles shape consciousness, community, and covenant. Together we will consider how marking time with awareness can nurture balance, resilience, and joy. You can sign up for all 8 sessions or just one at a time.

Annual Asian Food and Movie Night on December 25, 2025!

Requested in 2023 as well, this nostalgic film captures the essence of the small, tradition-steeped town of Anatevka, Russia, where Jews and Russians coexist in a delicate balance. Come relax, dine, and sing along!

Food will be ordered from Capitol Pho in Montpelier with selections listed below. Beth Jacob will provide all dishware and beverages.

Registration is required. We hope to see you!

Come skate with JCOGS at Waterbury Ice for a celebration with our Mad River neighbor

Gather with our northern community at United Church in Greensboro for Hanukkah music with Rabbi David, a fabulous potluck, basking in the glow of the seventh candle. Bring your favorite menorah and a creative vegetarian dish to share as we celebrate the Festival of Lights together in the Northeast Kingdom. All are welcome!

Come celebrate the Festival of Lights with the famous JCOGS Iron Chef Competition! Enter with an amazing dish prepared with the secret ingredient* or come hungry and vote. Fantastic prizes from local businesses. Bring your family menorah as we light up the dark together. Dreidel games, latkes, and song.

Join the celebration of Chanukah at the Vermont Statehouse

We’ll gather together outdoors to light the first candle of Hanukkah with song and intention followed by noshing and shmoozing indoors. Open to all.

Join us Sunday, December 14th at 4:30 PM to light our beautiful TWELVE FOOT Menorah. We’ll be giving out light up Chanukah sticks to all the kids (and adults too!) to light up the night as we sing our favorite Chanukah songs and display our huge Jewish pride for all to see!

Once the Menorah is lit we will head indoors to the Black Cap Cafe for a grand Chanukah party. We’ll have all the highlights from years past: crafts, music, games, drinks, chocolate coins and more.

There will be donuts, latkes, spiced apple cider, and new this year: A HOT COCOA BAR- hot cocoa with all the toppings!

Join us for a Potluck with latkes, children's games and

live music by the RJC Klezmer Band!

For more information please contact office@rutlandjewishcenter.org

Music and dancing with Lewis Franco & the Missing Cats, crafts, and dreidel games! Fun for all ages! Potluck: bring your favorite latke, spread or vegetarian dish of choice!

This event is FREE but food donation items appreciated for the food pantry!

Please RSVP

Course participants will explore this deeply troubling but deeply fascinating history of American antisemitism, paying particular attention to the present rise of antisemitism and trying to make historical sense of this moment. Even the antisemitism seen today from those who would decry Israel as an illegitimate state and decry Jews as imperial colonialists that should be shunned, even this idea has its own history which we will explore.

Besides an exploration of history, this course will also be an opportunity to share and reflect on our present experiences in what feels like an old-new moment in America’s relationship with Jews and Judaism.

• JCOGS members receive a discounted cost for this course: $90. Regular: $180. In addition, financial aid is available and should not be a barrier to participation.

• For Registration please click HERE.

Course participants will explore this deeply troubling but deeply fascinating history of American antisemitism, paying particular attention to the present rise of antisemitism and trying to make historical sense of this moment. Even the antisemitism seen today from those who would decry Israel as an illegitimate state and decry Jews as imperial colonialists that should be shunned, even this idea has its own history which we will explore.

Besides an exploration of history, this course will also be an opportunity to share and reflect on our present experiences in what feels like an old-new moment in America’s relationship with Jews and Judaism.

• JCOGS members receive a discounted cost for this course: $90. Regular: $180. In addition, financial aid is available and should not be a barrier to participation.

• For Registration please click HERE.