Congregation for Humanistic Judaism

Shabbat Candle Lighting
2025-08-01 18:30 - 19:20, 2025-07-25 18:30 - 19:20, 2025-07-18 18:30 - 19:20, 2025-07-11 18:30 - 19:20, 2025-07-04 18:30 - 19:20, 2025-06-27 18:30 - 19:20, 2025-06-20 18:30 - 19:20, 2025-06-13 18:30 - 19:20 (America/New_York) and 5 more dates
Zoom opens at 6:30pm just to kibbutz.
At 7pm we light candles with a short service. We listen to music and short lectures. Watch for the Zoom link on the listserv Friday afternoon.

Women's Rap
2025-07-27 10:30 - 12:30, 2025-06-29 10:30 - 12:30 | Member’s Residence Fairfield
Come join other CHJ women to talk about a topic to be chosen at the meeting. It’s a great way to get to know one another.
RSVP: rcfnpl2@gmail.com

Havdalah at the Beach ****NEW VENUE****
2025-07-26 18:00 | Sherwood Island State Park,Westport
Bid Shabbat farewell at the beach with fellow members, friends and guests on Saturday July 26, 6:00 p m. at the Sherwood Island State Park. Parking is free for CT residents as long as your car has a CT license plate.
We will meet at the Pavilion.
We ask those coming from out of state to contact local residents to arrange car pooling to avoid the parking fee.
Desserts, drinks and parking compliments of CHJ; bring your chairs and dinner.
Please RSVP programming@humanisticjews.org in order to plan for desserts and drinks.

Book Club - Table for Two by Amor Towles
2025-07-12 10:30 | Member’s residence
Join a discussion of Table for Two by Amor Towles
Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood.
The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how one of Towles’s most beloved characters, the indomitable Evelyn Ross from Rules of Civility, crafts a new future for herself—and others—in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows, and dive bars of 1930s Los Angeles.

Board Meeting
2025-07-08 19:00 | Zoom
We will begin work on the year’s programs and any activities of specific interest.
Please send me subjects of interest you wish the Board to consider in order to prepare the agenda.
Open to all CHJ members. Request the Zoom link from Previn Patel.

Forum on Israel and Anti-Semitism
2025-06-29 13:30 - 15:00 | Fairfield
These groups are organized by Loretta Jay, Michelle Tomarkin and Jessica Wolf for CHJ members to have a safe place to talk about Israel, anti-Semitism and other related topics and how we are affected. George Rockmore
has volunteered to serve as a back-up facilitator.

See listserv for venue.

RSVP forum@humanistcjews.org.

Havdalah at the Beach
2025-06-21 18:30 | Sherwood Island Park Westport
Bid Shabbat farewell at the beach with fellow members, friends and guests on Saturday June 21, 6:30 p m at the Compo Beach in Westport as usual.
Desserts, drinks and parking compliments of CHJ, bring your chairs and dinner.
Please RSVP programming@humanisticjews.org in order to plan for desserts and drinks.
Ask for CHJ parking at the gate. See you there.

Book Club - Table for Two by Amor Towles
2025-06-16 08:00 - 17:00
Join us for a discussion of Table for Two by Amor Towles.
The author writes of this book:
Table for Two includes six short stories and a novella which I wrote in the last ten years. The six stories, all set in New York, mostly take place around the turn of the Millennium. So, unlike my novels, they represent a time and place that I have witnessed firsthand, albeit through the eyes of a fabulist.
————–
When I finished assembling the collection, it occurred to me that in most of the pieces, a critical moment involved a pair of family members or strangers facing each other across a kitchen table to confront some new reality in their lives. I wasn’t conscious of this while writing the stories, but it must have sprung from a conviction in my subconscious that our lives can often change materially due to a single conversation at a table for two.

Book Club - Trust by Hernan Diaz
2025-06-15 10:30 | Member’s residence
All CHJ members are invited to discuss Trust by Hernan Diaz at a member’s residence. See listserv for address
There are four sections to “Trust,” a novel by Pulitzer Prize winning author Hernan Diaz. The first is a novel itself, a fictionalized life of a legendary and enormously successful 1920’s financier in New York City and his wife. The second is an unfinished memoir by the financier presumed by everyone to be featured in the novel. The third is the memories of the unknown young woman hired to help the financier write his memoir. The last is a short story about a woman who could be the wife. Each of them explores the human cost of wealth, especially in the reality-bending world of capitalism.

Jewish Journeys - Modigliani and Soutine ****CANCELED**********
2025-06-14 13:30 - 15:00 | Brooks Place,Westport Library, Westport, CT
********************CANCELED**********

Men's Rap
2025-06-08 09:30 | Member’s residence
Come and join us for kibbitzing and noshing.
Noshing starts at 9:30am.
Meeting at 10am.
RSVP – danapreis@gmail.com
Watch the liserserv for venue.

RSVP for CHJ 2025 Annual Meeting
2025-06-01 13:00 - 17:00 | Marilyn Brownstein’s Apartment Building
Sunday, June 1, 1:00-5:00 PM
Bridgeport, CT
Open to all CHJ Members
A catered luncheon will be served.
See the website directory or your downloaded PDF for Marilyn’s address.
Please RSVP below for an approximate number of attendees:

Person One

First

Last

Email One

Person Two

First

Last

Email Two

NumberPlease enter a number from 1 to 5.

Δ

Visitation and Memorial Service for Ellie Shafer
2025-05-18 10:00 - 12:00
Long-term member, Ellie Shafer, passed away peacefully at home on April 5th. A visitation and memorial service will be held on May 18th in Fairfield from 10AM to Noon. The Congregation wishes to express our extreme sadness at her passing and convey our condolences to her family for her loss. May her memory be a blessing. Her obituary can be viewed here.

Open to those who knew her and her family.

Board Meeting
2025-05-13 19:00

Forum on Israel and Anti-Semitism
2025-05-04 13:30 - 15:00 | TBA
