Registration Open for the 2022/23 School Year
Thank you for allowing the staff and clergy of CBY to help guide your child on their journey as they seek to develop their Jewish identity. Registration is now open for the 2022/23 school year. Click here to learn more!
Read more...Help Your Child Develop Their Jewish Identity
We discover the building blocks of Jewish life, explore our sense of selves in the context of our Jewish heritage, and apply the lessons and ethics of our Jewish people throughout our journeys.
Congregation B’nai Yisrael is our shared home where we come together with friends...Read more...
What's in Your Pocket?
What is in your pocket right now? Keys? Your phone? A note? Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Poland (1776- 1827) is known for saying that everyone must have two pockets and a note in each pocket. In one pocket, the note should read “For my sake the world was created,” and in the other pocket, the note should read “I am but dust and ashes.” He said when feeling uncertain, discouraged and low, one should reach into the right pocket...Read more...
Students, I'm Here to Listen
I’m sure by now you’ve heard the whole list of words and phrases used to describe the moment we’re in. Unprecedented. Challenging. Once-in-a-lifetime. The concerns of our country and our world are swirling all around us, filling our minds with added worry, adding to our anxiety. Your parents are trying to figure out how to take care of your family, how to protect you during this time, how to keep up with your education but also still...Read more...
Update on the 2020-21 JID School Year
These past few months have been very unsettling and I know that we are all looking for ways to find normalcy and regularity in our lives. I appreciate your patience as we have worked to craft a re-opening plan for JID that balances our commitment to your child’s Jewish education with our dedication to protecting your child’s health and well-being. Just as Byram Hills has for their schools, the clergy, staff, and leadership of CBY spent a...Read more...
A Special Message from Rabbi Strom & Cantor Sugarman
Friends,
We find it difficult to find the right words to describe the past couple of weeks. Challenging, difficult, stressful, frightening, they all seem too benign. Knowing, as we all do, that this too shall pass is cold comfort for parents scrambling to move their children out of their college dorms, children who are worried about the health of elderly parents, people whose futures are subject to the volatility of the stock market,...Read more...
Facebook, Family, and Sweden
By Melissa Cohavi
Growing up, I always knew that my mother’s maiden name, Einziger, was a name that connected me to every other Einziger in the entire world. Einziger means “only one” in German, and my grandfather always said to me, “if you ever meet another Einziger, know that you are related.” I even recall that he had a family Coat-of-Arms on the wall in the family room. This fact always fascinated me, and as far as we...Read more...
Get Cookin' with CBY
From Matzo Balls to Grilled Sangria. This book has it all! Recipes from CBY members for CBY members.
Traditional and new recipes from your CBY family.
Click here for more information.
Read more...CBY Needs Your Support
"Tzedakah and acts of kindness are the equivalent of all the mitzvot of the Torah"
– Jerusalem Talmud, Pe'ah 1:1
Dear friends,
$100,000.
That amount helps bridge the gap between what dues and tuition cover, and what they don’t.
That is the goal of the Annual Appeal; to bridge the gap. It is not a luxury, but a critical part of our annual budget.
If every family in the congregation...Read more...
Shinshinim at CBY
Students enrolled in the 2019/20 JID year will have the opportunity to work and connect with two Shinshinim - recent high school graduates from Israel who are taking a year off before fulfilling their military obligations back in Israel. Elian and Shai will work in our classrooms and give students a perspective that they have yet to experience.
We invite you to learn more about this program by clicking here.
Read more...Jewish Education and Jewish Identity Development: Is There a Difference?
The following appeared in E-Jewish Philanthropy
By Melissa Cohavi
As someone who has been involved in the Jewish education world for over 20 years, when I took a position four years ago as the Director of Jewish Identity Development (at Congregation B’nai Yisrael in Armonk, New York), at first I saw no difference between Jewish education and Jewish identity development. But four years later I can say now that there is a...Read more...
Israel is Real at CBY
By Melissa Cohavi, JID Director
There are so many exciting changes coming to CBY starting in the fall of 2019, and one is so great that I feel I need to shout it from the rooftops. The JID program will be participating in a Westchester community program (run through the Westchester Jewish Council) where our 4th through 7th graders will have young Israeli emissaries in their classrooms each week. You may be thinking, how is this...Read more...
CBY is Armonk's Neighborhood Congregation
Founded in 1969, Congregation B’nai Yisrael is a Reform congregation with over 330 family members. CBY is the center of Jewish life in Armonk, and as a neighborhood synagogue, we form a bond among our member families. Our synagogue serves as a spiritual and a social center where individuals fulfill their religious needs and find meaning in Judaism at every stage of life.
With various and innovative programs, CBY...Read more...
Get Cooking With CBY
Fifteen years ago Congregation B'nai Yisrael created Delicious Dishes, a cookbook based on recipes collected by members of our community.
Now, as we enter our 50th Anniversary, we want to do it all over again and invite you to share your family secrets with us, your CBY family.
Click here to learn more.
Read more...High Holy Day Sermons
We invite you to click the links below to view or read Rabbi Strom’s sermons from the High Holy Days.
Erev Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah
Kol Nidre
Yom Kippur
For information about how you may join the Congregation B’nai Yisrael community, please email Ava@cbyarmonk.org.
Read more...Bonni Stanley to Receive 2018 Peyser Award
Congregation B’nai Yisrael is pleased to announce that Bonni Stanley will receive the 2018 Peyser Award for her steadfast dedication to our community.
A member since 1999, Bonni has served on as a member of our Board of Trustees and as an Officer on our Executive Committee. Bonni currently is a member of the Religious Practices Committee and Chair of our Events Committee, overseeing a host of year-round fundraising...Read more...
Midnight Run 2018
Saturday, December 15 at 12:00pm
Join us as we prepare for the Midnight Run.
Sign up here to donate food for lunches, dinner & new clothing which will be distributed during the actual run that evening! If you would like to come help pack lunches & toiletry kits or organize clothing donations in preparation for the run, you can sign up below or just show up at noon on December 2nd!
WE ALSO...Read more...
ChallahPalooza 2018
Thursday, November 1 at 7:30pm
Space is limited.
$18 per person (to cover cost of supplies)
All ages welcome
Join a couple of Master Bakers (#notreallybakers) for a hands-on experience that you’ll absolutely knead going forward in life. We will braid challah dough, sample the finished product, and make dough to take home for our families. Part Julia Child, one part Swedish Chef from the Muppets,...Read more...
Letting Go with Melissa Cohavi and Shari Applebaum
First Session: Thursday, October 25 at 7:30pm
If this is you, join Melissa Cohavi, LMSW and Shari Applebaum, two empty nesting parents to talk about these issues and more. Our young adult children are searching for their own identities and independence. As people who have taken care of them their entire lives, how do we adapt? We will also look at how Jewish values can support us in this new life stage.
Members: no...Read more...
D’var Torah by Melissa Cohavi, Director – Jewish Identity Development Program
During the month of July, I had the opportunity to participate in the Bergman Progressive Jewish Educators Seminar in Israel. The Bergman Seminar is an intensive professional development seminar affiliated with the World Union for...Read more...
2018 JETY Award Winner: Julia Zimmerman
Congratulations Julia Zimmerman 2018 Brotherhood JETY Award Winner!
The CBY Brotherhood is pleased to honor Julia Zimmerman as the 2018 recipient of the Brotherhood’s Jewish Teen Youth (JETY) award which recognizes high school juniors and seniors who have...Read more...
The Capital Campaign Is Going Strong
“To build for the future of CBY”
“I am thankful for those who have come before who supported our congregation. I am forever grateful that my kids were able to be part of a local congregation…..and now strongly believe that it is my...Read more...
