The Torah commands:

וְאָֽהַבְתָּ֥ לְרֵעֲךָ֖ כָּמ֑וֹךָ אֲנִ֖י יְהוָֽה׃

Love your neighbor as yourself.

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In the biblical mindset, love is active - more than merely an emotion or a feeling.  To love means to act in loving ways, to share time and space, and truly get to know one another.  

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God is God no matter what we do or what names use.  Most all faith traditions are seeking the same things: to know the Divine, to have a code of morality by which to live, to better understand our place in the world and what is expected of us, to find fellowship and community,  and to have a system and community to help us through the most trying of times and teach us to be grateful for the blessing of life itself.  

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When we engage with others and see how they worship, we quickly learn we have far more in common that unites us than might keep us apart.  Our differences are largely an illusion, and although we may use different words and practice in different manners, we are all talking about the same things.  Essentially the same email, but a different inbox.

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Any parent who looks at their children when they're fighting feels real pain and disappointment.  On the contrary, when we see our children loving each other, cooperating, and working together for a common goal, we are filled with pleasure and pride.  Now imagine you have 7 billion children.

 

Congregation Beth Israel is proud of our vibrant and active interfaith activities.  Our rabbi is an active and regular speaker with such organizations as the Atlantic Institute the Greenville Interfaith Forum, and Upstate International.  

We are joyful hosts the the Atlantic Institutes annual Tour of Faiths, as well as their Table of Abraham.  

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And we are especially proud of the friendship with our next door neighbors the Northside United Methodist Church, which whom we just celebrated our 49th annual joint Thanksgiving service!!!

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We welcome various church youth groups and adult classes throughout the year to join us for a service to "see how we do it."  These regular visits include the Buncombe Street United Methodist Church, Advent UMC, The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd,  the Greenville Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, and more.  If your group is interested in getting to know us better, please don't hesitate to reach out to our rabbi.