B'ruchim ha'baim! Welcome to Congregation Beth Simchat Torah! We are a community of seekers. We want to create a kehillah kedoshah—a sacred community built on the pillars of social justice, study and prayer. We do not believe in a single path toward spiritual wholeness but rather a community in which our journeys are respected. We live with the tension and creativity of great diversity—open to voices different than our own. Listening to voices of our tradition, ancient and contemporary. Listening to voices of challenge.

We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us—some of whom are no longer with us. Our shul started with the vision of those few people in 1973 who rejected the accepted norm that one could not be openly gay and deeply Jewish at the same time. We are proud to be part of the World Congress of Gay and Lesbian Jewish Organizations. With our brother and sister groups and congregations we are building an exciting, vibrant Judaism.

In Psalm 118 it is written, "Even ma'asu habonim haitah L'rosh pinah, The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." The Jewish people have proven over and over again that persecution does not define a human being or a people. And now we, as gay and lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered Jews, our friends and our families, take that lesson to heart. We refuse to be defined by oppression. Our souls reach to the heavens.

--Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum