Bet Mishpachah
| Bet Mishpachah | |
|---|---|
| Address | For mail: P.O.Box 1410 Washington, D.C. 20013 Worship services: 1529 16th St, NW Washington, DC 20036 (Washington, D.C. JCC) |
| Rabbi | Toby Manewith |
| Public transit | Dupont Circle (Washington Metro), Red Line, Q Street Exit |
| Sabbath/Shabbat Worship | Friday evenings 2nd & 4th Sat mornings |
| Website | www |
Bet Mishpachah (Hebrew: בית משפחה) is a Jewish egalitarian worshiping community in the Dupont Circle area of Washington, D.C. It is one of a number of national and international Jewish communities of "LGBT affirming congregations" that specifically welcome and "embrace" the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community, along with all others who "wish to participate in an inclusive, egalitarian, and mutually supportive community." Membership is open to all singles, couples, and families, regardless of religious affiliation, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
Special worship services, programs, and events are sometimes held in various locations in the Dupont Circle area based on space or scheduling requirements, but the normal location for Sabbath worship is the Washington, D.C. Jewish Community Center (DCJCC).
Bet Mishpachah was founded in 1975, as the "Metropolitan Community Temple Mishpocheh." In 1976, it hosted the First International Conference of Gay & Lesbian Jews, which was organized in response to the United Nations resolution equating Zionism with racism, in an effort to create a forum for communications and mutual support among gay and lesbian Jews.
In 1978, the congregation elected a Board of Directors, and began holding weekly worship services, using rented spaces in Washington, D.C. The following year, the congregation received a Torah Scroll, rescued from The Holocaust, on permanent loan from the Westminster Synagogue in London. The scroll (a Sefer Torah, in Hebrew) once belonged to a small 500-year-old Jewish community in Dolní Kounice, a town destroyed in 1940, in the former Czechoslovakia.
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