Rabbi's Corner
Rabbi Marc Soloway has been the rabbi of Congregation Bonai Shalom since August 2004, just a few months after his ordination from The Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. Rabbi Marc's studies were also in his native London and Jerusalem. Before training to be a rabbi, he was an actor and a massage therapist. Rabbi Marc's journey to the rabbinate and to Boulder has been a long one with lots of interesting stops along the way! So far, Marc loves being in Boulder and at Bonai Shalom and is looking forward to the relationship continuing to grow and blossom!
A Letter from Rabbi Marc
Dear friends,
Traditionally a synagogue has three functions: Bait Tefillah (a house of prayer), Bait Knesset (a house of meeting) and Bait Midrash (a house of study). Congregation Bonai Shalom certainly fulfills all three of these roles. We are a vibrant community, full of heart and soul, as well as a keen intellectual thirst. Our services are traditional, egalitarian, lively, informal and participative, always accompanied by a great deal of soulful, melodic singing.
As a house of meeting, there are all kinds of events, projects and programs to which our membership enthusiastically commits, including various social action projects and a whole range of communal gatherings and celebrations. We are especially proud of our Sudanese refugee project. We are a community in a very real way, there to share in life’s joys and in life’s sorrows alike, always there to comfort and support as well as sing and dance. We are an extremely open, friendly and unpretentious group of families and individuals, who pride ourselves on the mitzvah of hachnassat orachim, hospitality. Guests are always warmly welcomed into our community, sharing in the weekly kiddush lunches, which are usually held outside by our beautiful flowing creek and, where possible, we endeavor to host newcomers and old alike for other Shabbat meals with different families.
We are certainly a community of learners, engaged in a rich dialog with Torah and the Jewish tradition, with classes and study sessions that integrate in-depth textual analysis with an urgent sense of relevancy and spirituality. There is always a fascinating blend of subjects from traditional texts, to creative and inter-active learning. Where possible, we try to create the atmosphere of a modern yeshiva, with people learning in havruta (Torah study partnership) or small groups, in order to open up the texts we are learning together. We have extremely lively and open-hearted discussions