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Congregation Shir Tikvah is a mid-sized independent congregation. Our founders envisioned a participatory, learning community and we work hard to fulfill that promise. At just over 20 years old, we're the "start up" in Portland's Jewish community.

Our neighborhoods are diverse and so are our supporters. They come from across the Jewish spectrum: Jew-by-birth, Jew-by-choice, queer, straight, trans, interfaith, atheist, devout believer, anti-Zionist, pro-Zionist, counter-Zionist, and not sure of anything at all. We welcome all who want to grapple with the beauty, contradictions, and enduring mystery of our sacred texts and traditions to better understand our spirituality, our world and the path we share.

Shir Tikvah means "song of hope". We gather strength from each other and our tradition: strength to hope and act for a better world, city, and community.

Until the Willamette River parts for Portland’s Jewish community to cross the divide,
the liberal, independent Shir Tikvah remains the east side’s only full-time shul.
Rabbi Ariel Stone’s casual congregation is serious about social justice and
Torah Study, complete with fresh bagels and heated banter.

- Portland Monthly

Beloved Shir Tikvah Community, 

Our hearts are with the families of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan. When American Jewish institutions are attacked, we feel it acutely. Many of us are pulled in multiple directions, perhaps looking for someone to blame, wondering what more we can do to change the pieces of our government and our societal values that have brought us to this point. In addition to our concern about friends and family in Israel, we grieve the loss of life in Lebanon, Iran, and the wider Middle East.

On top of all of this, many of us are trying to protect our neighbors from being deported without cause, harassed because of their ethnicity, which is the definition of racism. There are wonderful people in our community who are trying to promote awareness and action to help on a local level and if you want to find them to ask what you can do, please reach out to me and I can help you feel more connected to efforts by our members to effect change. When we feel helpless, it is often helpful to get involved on a local level.

Some of us, though, are most focused on helping our kids and our non-Jewish friends and neighbors to make sense of the chaos of our world. Whether we are focused on local issues, or global issues and/or their inevitable intersection with one another, be present in your Jewish community. Look at the Mejdi website and consider going to Israel/Palestine with Shir Tikvah in 2027. Date TBD.

I learned the Shir Tikvah song this week–It is our song of hope. Come and sing it with me this Shabbat. Sign up for Shir Tikvah Passover Seder. Feed the hungry. Help those less fortunate. Help your neighbor who might be afraid to go to the grocery store. Love your Jewish neighbor even if you disagree with them.

Friday : Come to Tot Shabbat! Our Picnic, and musical Kabbalat Shabbat.

Saturday: Torah Study in Person with Bagels or on Zoom. Tefillah (worship of the heart) in Person and on Zoom.

Sunday: Nashira and Adult Hebrew Class.

Our new Executive Director, Jamie Hogland, is up to date on security briefings and the safety and security of our community is of the utmost importance to us. With our Shir Tikvah leaders and with me, we are doing our best to be smart, safe and brave. And we will also have fun, joy and fulfill the mitzvah of Oneg Shabbat, taking delight in Shabbat.

As Ahad Ha'am famously said: "More than Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews."

Sometimes prayer is expressed in action

When he marched in Selma with Dr Martin Luther King Jr on a Shabbat, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said "it was as if my legs were praying." Sometimes prayer helps us muse upon our prior acts; sometimes it spurs us to act.

Judaism teaches that we all are to give as we are able: Urgent Aid to Gaza

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A Jewish Prayer for Palestine

As Jews, we pray for their well-being in accordance with our Torah’s command: “you shall not stand by as your neighbor bleeds”. 

May we live to see the day when Israelis and Palestinians will live in the land we call holy, together, and in peace.Our freedom is bound up with the freedom of all others. May we work toward a day of tikkun that frees Palestinians from the darkness of oppression. 

אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר - Elohim said Let There Be Light, and there was light.

May we create light that brings hope to the descendants of Hagar, and so to our ancestral home, and may we live to see peace over all Israel. Amen.

Adapted by Rabbi Ariel Stone from a prayer created by Matah Adler, on ritualwell.org.
Sources:
*VaYikra (Leviticus) 19.16
*B'reishit (Genesis) 1.3

We of Shir Tikvah are not a "niche congregation" nor are we definable in "either-or" binary terms: we are not straight or queer, not pro or anti Israel, not pro or anti Palestine or in any other simplistic way. We recognize nuance and the need for learning and listening in all things, as Rabbi Akiba taught "this too is Torah and I need to learn it." (BT Berakhot 62a) We welcome all who wish to center Torah learning and empathy in their Jewish spiritual practice; we celebrate the full diversity and mystery of HaShem's creation.

For up-to-date listings of all of our gatherings for prayer, ritual, learning and activities, please check our calendar.

Guests: You are welcome to request zoom links, or sign up to join our weekly newsletter, by contacting our office.

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We follow the Jewish ethic of caring for the most vulnerable of our community; therefore continue to require vaccination and boosting. We will also provide high quality masks for those who require them in order to participate in our community gatherings.

If you are feeling ill, please stay home and away from others. 

Health authorities have recommended the following source for ongoing information about the pandemic.