Welcome to Temple Beth El

Friday night services start at 7pm.

Spring is around the corner, and we have added some special events to the calendar!

This Sunday, March 5th, we are having a Purim Potluck Luncheon with Purim Spiel at 12:30pm after Hebrew School. Please bring a vegetarian dish, dessert or soft drinks or seltzer to share. Costumes welcome!

Temple Beth El is sponsoring “The Diamond District – Jews in Baseball” in Cooperstown on April 2nd, 2023, in the morning in their Village Hall. We will have two very distinguished speakers, our very own Bill Simons and Jeff Katz.
William Simons PhD is professor emeritus at SUNY Oneonta, former chair of the History Department, and recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Co-director of The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture. He served as a speaker for the New York Council on the Humanities, delivering baseball lectures in many public settings. Editor of 12 baseball books published by McFarland Press, he is also the author of numerous articles, essays, and reviews on the national pastime. A columnist for The Reporter, a Jewish Federation newspaper, he won the national Simon Rockower Award in 2021 for Excellence in Jewish Sports Journalism. During summer 2023, he will teach a course on Baseball as a Prism to Jewish Experience at Chautauqua.
Jeff Katz is an author, Executive Director of the Community Foundation of Otsego County, and the former Mayor of Cooperstown, the “Birthplace of Baseball” and home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Split Season:1981 – Fernandomania, the Bronx Zoo, and the Strike that Saved Baseball, (Thomas Dunne Books, 2015), received national attention, with coverage appearing in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Sporting News and NPR’s Only a Game, among others. Split Season: 1981 was a finalist for the 2016 Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year. Katz’ work has appeared on Fox Sports’ Just a Bit Outside and The Nation. His first book, The Kansas City A’s & The Wrong Half of the Yankees (Maple Street Press, 2007) received notable mentions in The New York Post, The Kansas City Star and other newspapers.

Bill Simons’ talk is titled “The Jews, Dodgers and Brooklyn: The Jackie Robinson Decade”. It will examine the special relationship that existed between Brooklyn’s large Jewish community and the Dodgers before they departed NYC for Los Angeles.

Jeff Katz’ talk is titled “Marvin Miller: From Brooklyn to Cooperstown”. From humble beginnings, Marvin Miller became a transformative figure in baseball history, fighting the owners and their archaic views and leading baseball into a new era of free agency, enhanced competition, and unimagined profitability.

Rabbi Meir Rubashkin of Chabad is providing kosher hot dogs kosher with all the trimmings for the event!

Please plan to attend, it is free and open to the public. Cooperstown Village Hall, 22 Main Street, Cooperstown, NY. Reservations are required. Please contact us at tbeoneonta@gmail.com or call 607-432-5522. Please leave your name, the number of people in your party and a way to contact you.

Also on tap is a concert organized by Robin Seletsky and Stan Fox on May 7th, 2023, at 3:00pm From Shtetl to Broadway. An afternoon of Jewish music presented by members of our Temple Beth El community as well as guests from the Oneonta area. There will be Klezmer selections, Broadway show tunes and a Yiddish sing-along featuring our members Andy Puritz, Stan Fox, Michael Bauer, Robin Seletsky. The concert will be free and open to the public.

Friday Evening Services in March: March 10th Rabbi Wolf 7pm
March 17th Visiting Rabbi 7pm
March 24th Visiting Rabbi 7pm

Good news! Returning to In Person Services

As of this printing, according to Dr Richard Sternberg, our Covid advisor, transmission of the virus in Otsego County is at a low point. We will be able to meet in person for services going forward unless there is a change. For those attending in person we do recommend wearing masks, but it is not mandatory. However, to protect the elderly or those who are immunocompromised, we highly recommend it. For those who do not wish to attend in person, Zoom will be available.

Temple Beth El is an egalitarian congregation serving the Jewish community of the northern Catskills since 1935. We join together for prayer, celebrations, and life-cycle events in our beautiful synagogue at 83 Chestnut Street in Oneonta, New York.

As a community representing a variety of Jewish experiences, we are dedicated to the continuity of Jewish life and the shared expression of our traditions, values and culture in its many forms. Through prayer, learning, social events, commitment to each other and service to the community, we encourage a life-long connection to Judaism. Each member, at every age and at all levels of knowledge and practice, is supported, challenged, and encouraged to seek an increased understanding of her/himself and Judaism. Our Rabbi, Temple President, Board of Directors, Religious School Director, lay leadership, Men’s Club, Sisterhood, and religious school support our congregation’s goals and objectives.

Temple Beth El is located approximately halfway between Albany and Binghamton in historic downtown Oneonta and boasts members from several surrounding counties. We welcome you to join us.  Wheelchair accessible.

Click here for a map showing Oneonta’s location in upstate NY

Temple Beth El is affiliated with The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.