Pesah Wine & Cheese Tasting
2026-03-23 17:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York)
Join us for our Passover Wine and Cheese Tasting with Rosenberg Blue Star Wines. Buy all of your Passover wine and candy for your Seders and support BZBI and our Youth & Family and Early Childhood Education Programs!

Tikkun Olam Lunch & Learn: There Shall Be No Needy
2026-03-26 12:30 - 14:00
Join Rabbi Abi Weber, Davida Charney, and Bill Brookover for our next Tikkun Olam Lunch & Learn! Each month, we will meet to discuss There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice Through Jewish Law & Tradition by Rabbi Jill Jacobs. Please read Chapter 2 ahead of the meeting.
Don’t worry if you don’t get to it in time — we’ll have source sheets available! Lunch will be provided — please register here by Tuesday, March 24.

Second Seder at BZBI
2026-04-02 18:30 - 20:00 | Kahaner Auditorium
BZBI is proud to announce that we will be hosting a second night Seder for the BZBI community thanks to a very generous and Anonymous Donor who helped to lower the cost to our community. We welcome all to join your BZBI family for a warm, inviting and celebratory occasion – catered by Deluxe Catering and led by Rabbi Kenneth A. Stern.
Registration is now closed, if you are interested in joining us next year, let the Temple Office know!
The menu includes:
FIRST COURSE
Chicken Soup with Matzah Balls
Hearty Garden Fresh Vegetables in a Vegetarian Broth
SECOND COURSE
Gefilte Fish with Beet Horseradish
SIDE DISHES
Glazed Carrots with Yams, Assorted Dried Fruit, and Accent of Cinnamon
Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes with garlic
ENTREE COURSE
Braised Brisket with House-Made Bourbon BBQ Sauce
Squash with Quinoa
Chicken Fingers & French Fries
DESSERT OPTIONS
Brownies (Not Gluten-Free) and Nut-Free Charoset
Selection of Assorted Passover Macaroons
Seasonal Fresh Fruit to include Watermelon, Honeydew, Cantaloupe, Pineapple, and Grapes

Pesah Hol HaMoed Lunches
2026-04-06 12:00 - 13:00 | Kahaner Auditorium
Pesah Hol HaMoed Lunches Are Back
On Monday and Tuesday (April 6 and April 7 at 12:00 PM in the Kahaner Auditorium), BZBI will host catered, kosher for Pesah lunch for members, and the entire Center City Jewish community. BZBI members receive a discount, so sign up today and send the link on to those who might wish to join us! Click here to register.
Maximum Capacity: 20 people for each meal.

Yom HaShoah at BZBI: The World that Was
2026-04-13 18:00 - 19:30 | BZBI chapel
Join us on the eve of Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) for a moving ceremony and presentation by Nancy Scholem (sister of Rabbi Ken Stern). Nancy will speak about her mother’s experience — Rabbi Ken says that she “channels our mother” — surviving Auschwitz and the death marches, ultimately to be liberated from Bergen-Belsen. From Germany, she went on to convalesce in Sweden before coming to relatives in Chester, PA.
Nancy will share family stories, photos, and history about the Jewish community in Czechoslovakia and Hungary prior to the Nazi invasion.

Community Gathering for Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha'atzmaut
2026-04-19 09:00 - 13:00
Special guests from Jerusalem Nava Tehila will lead us in a powerful ceremony transitioning from Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day for fallen Israeli soldiers and victims of terror) to Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day). Keren Keshet, the leader of Philadelphia’s Israel Scouts unit (“Pa’amon Tzofim”), will present about her experience as a child born during the Yom Kippur war, now a mother of Israeli soldiers since October 7.
Light refreshments will be served. Register here (donations optional).
This program will be in conjunction with our Morning Minyan.

Rebuilding the Future: Resilience, Recovery, and Hope in Israel
2026-04-23 19:00 - 21:00
Please join us for a meaningful discussion with Gilles Darmon, Founder and President of Latet, Israel’s largest NGO fighting poverty and food insecurity, for a rare and intimate conversation about the effects that the prolonged war had on poverty, resilience, and hope in Israel, and the role of Israeli civil society in rebuilding the country. We hope you’ll be able to join us for an evening of discovery, insights, and solidarity.
Click here to register.
The event will take place in Philadelphia (near Rittenhouse square), exact address will be provided closer to the event. For questions please contact Ortal Margalith.

Resilience and Return: Segev Kalfon’s Survival of Captivity in Gaza
2026-04-26 15:00 - 17:00 | Society Hill Synagogue, 418 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, United States
Join us as Segev Kalfon shares his remarkable story of the resilience, determination, and faith which sustained him through 738 days of captivity in Gaza. He will discuss the strength, purpose, and hope that can emerge even in the darkest of circumstances.This program will be held in Society Hill Synagogue’s Sanctuary, with a reception and Israeli hors d’oeuvres to follow in the Social Hall.
This program is presented by Society Hill Synagogue’s Israel Connections Subcommittee in partnership with Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
Click here to register.

Get Siddurized: A Class on the Siddur with Leslee Schwartz
2026-04-27 18:15 - 19:45
Ever wonder when to stand and when to sit during Shabbat services? How and when to bow? Why to repeat some lines and not others? Wish you had notes in your siddur? If so, join Leslee Schwartz for these classes where you can talk through the order of the service and personalize your own copy of Sim Shalom!
Click here to register.
Purchase a copy of the blue Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat from the Rabbinical Assembly here.
If cost is in any way an obstacle to registering please call or email Leslee directly!

Whatever Exists, Exists in God: A Contemporary Jewish Encounter with Spinoza’s Ethics led by Rabbi Ira F. Stone
2026-04-29 18:15 - 19:45 | BZBI chapel
A brief introduction to the work of one of the greatest Jewish philosophers whose work caused his excommunication from the Jewish community 500 years ago.. a ban that is theoretically still in force. But Spinoza’s worldview is one that may be much more compelling to contemporary Jews. In fact, it may serve as a firmer basis for religious affiliation and practice than more traditional frameworks do for many. We will explore the basic outline of his thought and its potential applications for today.
There are four sessions within the course, each costing $25 ($100 for the full four weeks). Click here to register!

Annual Phyllis Kramer Torah Fund Shabbat
2026-05-02 09:30 - 13:00 | BZBI Sanctuary
We are hopeful that you will be able to be with us at our first annual Phyllis Kramer Torah Fund Shabbat on May 2, 2026. Our speaker will be our own Rabbi Kenneth Stern who will share his experiences at JTS that were made possible because of WLCJ Torah Fund.

Young Professional Lag B'Omer
2026-05-04 19:00 - 20:30
We’ll be gathering to enjoy a potato bar and s’mores. Soft drinks and seltzers will be provided. You’re welcome to bring your own beverages (alcoholic or non) and vegetarian snacks. Musical instruments are also encouraged!
Cost is $9/person. Given the limitations of space, we anticipate this event will reach capacity, so we strongly encourage you to register early!
Reach out to Hope Wright with questions.

Jews and Divorce: Being a Welcoming Community for All of our Families
2026-05-09 09:30 - 12:30 | BZBI Sanctuary
Join us for a special Shabbat with guest teachers Rabbi Ezra Weinberg and therapist Batsheva Ganz, co-founders of Areivut. How can we, as a Jewish community, best support our members going through divorce? What rituals can help families in this process? What should we say (or not say) to someone who is getting a divorce?
The day will include a Shabbat teaching for the whole community, a post-kiddush learning session, and an afternoon meetup for Jews going through divorce. See a recent feature about Areivut’s work in the Jewish Exponent.

American Red Cross Blood Drive in Partnership with Tenth Presbyterian Church
2026-05-11 14:00 - 19:00 | tenth presbyterian church, 1701 Delancey Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19103, United States
Donate blood in May! Click here to sign up for a donation slot.
Please let Julia Pollock know if you can volunteer during the blood drive that day.

Tractate Pesachim, Chapter One with Rabbi Ira Stone
2026-05-25 10:00 - 11:30 | Zoom Only
Weekly on Monday’s, Starting October 20 at 10:00 AM on Zoom
We will be studying the first chapter of the Talmudic Tractate Pesachim in our weekly Talmud class this year. While the opening topic of the chapter reviews the laws of Bedikat Hametz, the search for the Hametz just prior to Pesach, as is the nature of the Talmudic text, subjects can run far a field as we follow the inimical associative reasoning of the sages.
Click here to register.
A zoom link will be distributed ahead of the first class meeting after participants have registered. The cost is $180 for BZBI members and $250 for community members.
