Learn Torah Trope in your own Hevruta!

Learn the symbols, the key to unlock the trope system. Then learn the niggun (melody) for each symbol for Torah trope. Finally, practice applying your knowledge to actual Torah readings! Organize a group of three students or more, and arrange six lessons with the teacher at a mutually agreeable time. For more information, contact the CBD office at 408.257.3333 or email .

Pre-requisites: All levels welcome! It is not a requirement
to be able to read Hebrew to learn the trope system. However, in order to apply the trope, you must be able to read Hebrew.

Textbook: Handouts provided
Instructor: Barbara Biran
Time: Flexible; six 1-hour lessons
Cost: $60 members, $100 non-members

Adult Torah Readers' Club

Join the adult Torah Readers’ Club! Read Torah at Beth David three times and receive a special pin, presented to you at your third reading.

Need help? Contact the CBD officeat 408.257.3333 or email to be matched with a tutor or mentor.

Yo'etz Ne'eman Mentoring Program

Need a mentor? If you would like to learn a specific ritual or skill, or just need resources for self-instruction, we can match you with a congregant who can help! See our mentoring request form for learning opportunities about home and holiday rituals, synagogue skills, and life cycle events. For more information, contact the CBD office at 408.257.3333
or .

Volunteer to be a mentor and share your knowledge with other members of our congregation. Fill out our mentoring skills form to add your name to our database of congregant mentors.

Enemies, A Love Story

Time: Saturday, 8:00 pm, March 29, 2008
Location: Congregation Beth David, Social Hall
Cost: Free

Based on the novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer, Enemies, A Love Story follows Herman Broder in the summer of 1949 as his life goes from comfortably compartmentalized to over-whelming complication with two wives, a mistress and a demanding rabbi for a boss! Focusing on complex dialogue and rich, complicated characters, director Paul Mazursky takes his cast (Ron Silver, Anjelica Huston, Lena Olin, and Alan King) through a study of the human condition, ripe with irony, seasoned with despair, love and forgiveness.

About Paul Mazursky (edited from Wikipedia):

Paul Mazursky (born April 25, 1930) is an American actor and film director. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he is a descendant of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. After he graduated from Brooklyn College in 1951, he made his film debut in Stanley Kubrick's first feature, Fear
and Desire. He then became a writer and worked on The Danny Kaye Show in 1963, then in 1965 collaborated with Larry Tucker in crafting the script of the original pilot of The Monkees TV series. Mazursky's first film as director was Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. He also directed Alex in Wonderland, An Unmarried Woman, Enemies: A Love Story, and Scenes from a Mall. Other films include Blackboard Jungle, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Moon Over Parador and the autobiographical Next Stop, Greenwich Village.

He has recently published his autobiography which recounts his experience in film making and well-known screen personalities he has directed. His quirky and iconoclastic approach to film subject matter
has usually resulted in either big hits or audacious flops.

Mazursky has appeared as himself in a number of documentaries on film, including A Decade Under the Influence, New York at the Movies, and Screenwriters: Words Into Image. In Moon Over Parador, when Judith Malina, cast as the dictator's mother, was unavailable—and with the Rio Opera House available for three days of shooting—Mazursky played her himself, in drag! In more recent years, Mazursky had a
small part as "Sunshine", the poker dealer on The Sopranos. He also appeared in five episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm as Norm, one of
Mel Brooks' associates.

February 28 - March 2, 2008
Scholar: Rabbi Gershom Sizomu

Rabbi Gershom Sizomu is a research fellow at the Institute for Jewish & Community Research and the spiritual leader of the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda. Rabbi Sizomu earned a Bachelor of Arts in education from Islamic University, Uganda. As a fellow of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, Gershom Sizomu attends the Zeigler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism, Los Angeles.

Abayudaya is a local term that means "the people of Judah.” The Jews of Uganda trace their roots to Semei Kakungulu, a missionary for the British who favored the Hebrew bible, and spread its teachings at the turn of the 20th century. Today, approximately 600 members of the Abayudaya community
live among the rolling green hills of Eastern Uganda—within several miles of Mbale, the third largest city in Uganda. In 2002, at the community's request, a Conservative Bet Din supervised the conversion of most of the Abayudaya community members.

Rabbi Sizomu plays guitar and writes music for the community. He has produced a CD of Ugandan Jewish music: “Sing For Joy: Abayudaya Jews ~ Uganda.” He and his wife, Tziporah, perform Ugandan Jewish music and lecture about Jews in Uganda. They have three children: Igaal, Dafnah and Navah.

SCHEDULE