High Holidays 2024

For our 2024 High Holidays, our new Rabbi, Rachel I. Salston, will be joined by guest Cantor Toby Banks.

Toby Banks is a second-year cantorial student at the Jewish Theological Seminary. After completing a BA in Psychology from Cornell University, she went on to have a 20+ year career as both a professional classical singer and a development professional. As a fundraiser, she has raised millions of dollars for the Drama League, Central Park Summerstage, the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Study, the Asia Society, Digital Democracy, and many more.
      Toby has performed as a featured soloist with opera companies and symphony orchestras in major concert halls across the United States, from New York City to Los Angeles, Anchorage to Honolulu and beyond. In addition to the classical opera and concert repertoire, she made a name for herself in the world of avant-garde and contemporary classical music and has been a featured soloist in countless premieres and recordings with such world-renowned composers as Meredith Monk, Thomas Pasatieri, Huang Ruo, and Gerald Cohen. Toby also sang in Park Avenue Synagogue’s professional choir for over 15 years, where she is now a member. This summer, she will serve as cantorial intern at Congregation B'nai Israel in Fleischmanns, NY. After joining Temple Beth El for the high holidays, she will be the cantorial intern at Brotherhood Synagogue in New York City for the 2024-2025 academic year. 
     Toby views music, Judaism, and leadership/pastoral care as the three points of a cantorial triangle. While music and Judaism have always been major pillars in her life, the calling to Jewish leadership and pastoral care came more gradually as a result of various life events and her experiences as an ImmerseNYC mikveh guide. As a cantorial student, she is excited to bring together her passion for all three in  order to serve the Jewish community through leadership, healing, prayer, and song.

TBE Receives Security Grant
Thank you to the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond and Jewish Federations of North America for the generosity of the Tepper Foundation which supports our security initiatives for the High Holidays.

Virtual Access Option:  Services will be streaming on YOUTUBE ONLY this year  (there will be no Zoom).  Click here to watch

Simchat Torah Dancing Through Tears

Along with more than 320 congregations globally, Temple Beth-El is participating in The Simchat Torah Project: Dancing Through Tears, a way to remember those lost on October 7, 2023.  Despite the happiness of dancing with the torahs for the completion and restarting of the annual torah reading cycle, we should not ever forget the tragedy of so many of our fellow Jews (and others) murdered last year on Simchat Torah.

We will receive a torah cover (cost is $1800) which will be used throughout the High Holy Days.  It will be embroidered with the name "Nitzan Goldenberg", one of the many victims of October 7.   You can read more about Nitzan by clicking here.

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Rent a digital Mahzor for $3, good for the entire High Holiday season. Click here.

Service Guides

A Guide to Rosh Hashanah Prayers
A Guide to Yom Kippur Prayers