Starting in silent movies and extending to today’s hit series “Menasha” and “Unorthodox,” Yiddish language films started as an attempt to entertain the Jewish masses only to become a powerful visual and esthetic record on 20th/21st century Jewry.

Covering over a dozen films all with newly composed sub-titles, author/producer Henry Sapoznik and Rick Winston, Vermont's favorite movie maven, talk not only about the great stars of the Yiddish stage and screen (Molly Picon, Maurice Schwartz) but also shed light on the nearly lost legacy of pioneers like producer/director Joseph Seiden and director Edgar G. Ulmer (better known for his gritty, low budget film noirs) who helped will Yiddish films into existence despite tremendous odds during its brief “Golden Age” In addition to films made by and for the immigrant Jewish community, their talk will also focus on how Yiddish was presented in mainstream Hollywood films featuring James Cagney, Joe E. Brown and the Three Stooges.

Welcome to our 2025 Community Seder!

Our Seder will begin at 5:00pm, with potluck dinner being served around 7:00pm.

Kosher-for-Passover vegetarian or dairy dishes are welcome! Matzoh ball soup will be provided. Regular and gluten-free matzoh will be available. Space is limited.

Registration is required by April 6.

Come celebrate Purim with us!

Our annual Purim Party is fun for all ages. Come in costume (if you want!) Get ready for tzedekah box decorating, listening to a portion of the megillah in both English and Hebrew, and of course, stay for pizza and hamantaschen!

Registration is required.

Join us at Beth Jacob for a Hebrew reading of the megillah with a guest reader from Chabad in Burlington. Stay for a hamentaschen (or two!) RSVP below!

Welcome Vermont Forest Cemetery board member and natural burial advocate Jim Hogle for a screening of our documentary From Earth to Earth: The Lost Art of Dying in America at the Beth Jacob! As Jews, our death and burial law is rooted in returning back to the earth "dust to dust". Join us for this beautiful film!

Following the screening there will be a Q&A session to answer all of your natural burial questions.

If you are not familiar with the Vermont Forest Cemetery, you can find more information here.

Light refreshment will be served during screening. Donations are welcomed!

Members, non-members, Jews and non-Jews are all welcome in this space.

Register

Beth Jacob is hosting an all ages/ all-levels snowshoe hike with Sarah Villanueva from 10:00am-12:00pm at North Branch Nature Center. Join naturalist Fiona Modrak for a guided hike where we discuss the local ecology of central Vermont and discuss how animals endure our winters! Take some trail mix home, each ingredient with a different intention as we bring in Tu B'Shvat together!

Gentle disclaimer: this is not a boots hike. Trails are maintained for those using snoeshoes/cross country skiis, and divits in the snow disrupts this. Snowshoes are available for rent upon arrival. Registrants are responsible for renting their own shoes. Bringing your own is also welcome!

Registration required for snowshoe count. We hope to see you there!

https://www.bethjacobvt.org/event/34shoe-b39shvat34-nature-walk-in-person.html

Join us for our Tu B'Shvat Seder at Beth Jacob! We will be seated and starting at 5:30pm.

Registration is required and by sliding scale $5-$10. Please reach out to Sarah if cost is an issue - we do not want anything preventing you from celebrating with us!

Allergy disclaimer: almonds, walnuts. 

Register

Join us for our annual Chanukah Party on December 22 at 3:00pm! Latkes and other refreshment are potluck style. Please email Sarah if you are intending to bring latkes/condiments! Other vegetarian dishes are encouraged as well. Registration is encouraged

Join us for a potluck dinner to welcome new members to our intergenerational community! Bring the kids, too! We will read a story, perform the Havdalah blessings (volunteers welcome!) and share a meal together in the Community Room! We will also be having a book "sale" to find good homes for our library overflow. Books are "sold" by donation of your choice, and can be left in the tzedakah box on the table by the door. Registration is encouraged please. We hope to see you there!

The "first autobiography of a Jewish woman", written 1691 - 1719. Books can be ordered at Bear Pond Books (Sara Friedman Tauber Publications version recommended). Gathering Thursday August 10 (rescheduled from August 9) at Beth Jacob Synagogue. RSVP to Sarah Birgé at sbirge@gmail.com!

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF GREATER STOWE AND VERMONT HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL
COMMEMORATE THE HOLOCAUST WITH MUSIC OF JEWISH RESISTANCE

REGISTER BELOW

The Jewish Community of Greater Stowe (JCOGS) in conjunction with the Vermont Holocaust Memorial are planning a tribute to the spirit of resistance—and a solemn remembrance of the Jewish and other victims of the Holocaust, the unprecedented genocide perpetrated by Nazi Germany and its allies during World War Two. The commemoration and
concert will be held at JCOGS, 1189 Cape Cod Road, Stowe, at 4PM on Sunday, April 16 th .

Featured as part of the commemoration will be a concert entitled Whispers From the Past, performed by
Temple Trio, musicians from the Vermont Symphony Orchestra: Laura Markowitz, violin; Ana
Ruesink, viola; and John Dunlop, cello. Musicologist and child of Holocaust survivor, Berta Frank, will
host the event.

“For many of the doomed inmates of Theresienstadt (Terezín) concentration camp in
Czechoslovakia, and other sites of murder and horror, composing and performing music helped to
preserve their souls,” said Debora Steinerman, president and cofounder of the Vermont Holocaust
Memorial, an organizer of the event. “These compositions are vital historical records of a painful
time and afford us a glimpse of some of the feelings experienced by many of these prisoners.”

Thursday April 13, the last day of Passover, Rabbi Tobie Weisman will lead a service at 5-6pm at Beth Jacob followed by the Feast of Mashiach, a beautiful Hasidic custom.

The service will consist of chanting Hallel, reading from the Torah and reciting Yizkor.

This will be followed by a very light meal of Matzah and grape juice while we visualize how we are going to leave what is keeping us enslaved in our lives and how we will be moving forward to help bring more love, light and peace into our lives personally and into the community and world. Since the weather should be very warm, we will be outside if possible.

Feel free to bring Kosher for Passover labeled food including Matzah, fruit and veggies