Welcome to P’nai Or of West Hartford
We are a warm, friendly and authentic community and we welcome you to join us for our holiday celebrations and Shabbat services. Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener will lead our High Holiday Services as well as our monthly Shabbat services. Our congregation has a close relationship with Rabbi Andrea, our founding rabbi, who was ordained by the ALEPH Ordination Program in 1999. We welcome your presence, your voices, your spirits, your families, and your friends.
Our Shabbat services are typically the first Saturday of each month, from September through June – please check the Shabbat Services page. After the services, we share a pescetarian (vegetarian and kosher style fish) pot luck lunch, which gives us the opportunity for sharing food and conversation. Dates for other Jewish Holidays can be found here. We offer a Zoom option for all services.
Our heartful davennen/prayers include singing, chanting, stories, dance, guided imagery, meditation, sharing, and Torah discussion. Our services are egalitarian, include both Hebrew and English, and are designed to be accessible to people from varied backgrounds. We focus on the meaning of a prayer rather than rushing through every word of a prayer. We combine traditional liturgy with new melodies and creative translations, and refer to God in ways that transcend traditional images. Through our prayer we touch all four worlds that the Jewish mystics teach about: Assiyah (action/body), Yetzirah (feeling/heart), Briah (thought/mind), and Atzilut (spirit).
P’nai Or means “Faces of Light”. We are one of many Jewish renewal groups around the world affiliated with ALEPH: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal.
We welcome people of all ages, religious backgrounds, genders, sexual orientations, and lifestyles to our services. We are grateful that P’nai Or consists of a rich diversity of members. As a community we are dedicated to creating an environment that is open and affirming, and serves the needs of all our members. We look forward to meeting you!