Services and Celebrations

Join us for a wonderful array of participatory Shabbat and Holiday celebrations. We create a safe and sacred space for everyone to bring their authentic selves to our community to pray, learn, celebrate, meditate, dance and grow a vibrant, diverse community together. Kehilla services invite you to participate with your spirit, your voice, your mind, your heart, your full being. We draw from various strands of Jewish spirituality and theologies and weave our social and environmental consciousness through them.

To view our monthly calendar that includes information about our current services and celebrations, click here.

Kabbalat Shabbat

1st Friday night of each month, 7:30 p.m.
Join us for a soulful, song-filled evening of ecstatic and contemplative prayer, as we welcome in Shabbat.

Community Shabbat

2nd Friday night of each month , 6:30 p.m. (6pm Tot Shabbat)
You are warmly invited to our Community Shabbat celebration for all generations. Please bring a vegetarian potluck dish to share. Friday is a special stop on the round of stations that comprise the Shabbat journey. It is not so much oriented toward worship as it is toward fellowship and for celebrating as we leave the week behind. Adults can be inspired, school children can be engaged and tots can absorb the joy of community and Shabbat. Schedule: 6-6:30pm: Mini Tot Shabbat with Mindy Zarem (for 2-5 year olds and their adults); 6:30-7:30: Potluck vegetarian dinner preceded by Shabbat blessings (For EVERYONE!) 7:30-8:15: Shabbat service. (For people over Tot age.)

Havurah Shabbat

3rd Friday night of each month
Many of Kehilla’s Havurot (plural for Havurah, or friendship group) meet on this night.

Tot Shabbat (for 2-5 year olds)

4th Friday evening of each month, 6 p.m.
Mindy Zarem leads a tot-friendly Shabbat experience with puppets and music. Gathering with songs and puppets at 6pm. Candles, Kiddush and vegetarian potluck at 6:15. Child-friendly service from 7:00-7:15.

Shabbat Morning Services

Saturday Mornings, 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. followed by Kiddush
Take a few hours to replenish yourself spiritually at Kehilla’s stirring Shabbat morning services. The time you take to appreciate the beauty of the morning, feel awe at the wonders of creation, tune in to your spiritual yearnings, and sing together in community will carry you through the rest of your week. As an added treat, at many services one of our Kehilla youth will celebrate her or his coming of age by reading from the Torah, offering a drash, or teaching, and speaking aloud his or her covenant with our community, with the Jewish people, and with (or without) God.

Periodically throughout the year, we augment our Shabbat morning services with additional music and musicians, guest leaders, and particular tikkun olam emphases. At the solar solstices and equinoxes, we gather in nature for a walking Shabbat meditation and service. During the month of Elul, which precedes Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), we gather outdoors for a Shofar Shabbat service.

High Holydays Services

We celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) at a larger facility on the shore of Oakland’s Lake Merritt, the Scottish Rite Center. Joyous and solemn, reflecting on the past year and looking ahead to the next, Kehilla High Holydays services help you access the deepest parts of yourself, for recognition and t’shuvah (returning).

Other Holidays

Kehilla celebrates the full calendar of Jewish holidays. Often, we collaborate with other East Bay Jewish Renewal communities for Simchat Torah, Tu b'Shvat and Purim. Our celebrations are full of ruach (spirit) and the joy of being together in community.

Other Community Celebrations:

In July 2008, seven same-sex couples celebrated their marriage in our sanctuary. It was a moment of great joy for the couples and our community.

Stay tuned for information about current community celebrations!