Congregation Beth Sholom - Chevra Shas

Welcome to Congregation Beth Sholom-Chevra Shas, an egalitarian Conservative congregation affiliated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, committed to creating a warm and welcoming environment to all people seeking to enhance their Jewish life.

As the Rabbi of this congregation, I am honored to be the first to welcome you to our congregation, even virtually. At CBS-CS, we are all committed to learning, growing, and connecting with our Jewish tradition. So, in that vein, allow me to share some texts from our tradition that are the cornerstones of our values and help us create the community that we strive for.

CBS-CS is a diverse and dynamic Conservative Jewish congregation. Our warm, engaging, knowledgeable rabbi and energetic staff work with a large number of volunteer corps to develop innovative program -- religious, spiritual, educational, pastoral and social -- that appeal to the varied interests of our membership. Our understanding of the imperative to cultivate the future of the Jewish People underlies our commitment to youth. We foster intergenerational connections, formally and informally.

We create, maintain, and utilize a sizeable pool of qualified congregants to lead and participate in our services. Sufficient financial resources enable us to respond to the evolving needs of out congregation, keeping members of all ages actively engaged, using both traditional and modern modalities. We strive to promote relationships with the larger Syracuse Jewish community, as well as with other faith communities. Through all of these endeavors, we are building a community of people living a fuller, more meaningful Jewish life.

Rabbi Rachel Ain has been the rabbi at CBS-CS since 2004 after receiving her rabbinic ordination and masters in Jewish education from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. She holds a BA in America History from Barnard College and a BA in Midrash from JTS. During her time in rabbinical school, she worked at a local Jewish day school as well as at United Jewish communities; she completed her pastoral education requirements through work in a local hospital and was commissioned as a Naval Reservist for the US Navy Chaplains Corps.

Since ordination she has continued to develop professionally. She completed a course at the Onondaga Pastoral Counseling Center, where she explored different issues within the areas of mental health; she participated in the PEER program, a component of STAR: Synagogue for Transformation and Renewal, in a leadership training initiative for a select group of rabbis in North America and she was chosen for the inaugural year-long fellowship at CLAL, called Rabbis Without Borders, where she is trained in how to bring the wisdom of Jewish tradition into the larger public sphere.