Sign In Forgot Password
Home > What We Do > Community > Community Circles

Community Circles

Community Circles


Building community and friendships through shared interests.
Beth Am Community Circles are your place to connect more intentionally with other members around a shared interest or life stage. Community Circles are affinity groups open to members of Congregation Beth Am and coordinated by congregants. Help start the group you are looking for! Beth Am staff is available to help connect members to and/or create a Community Circle. Current Circles include hiking, board games, single adults and parents of young adults.

Beth Am Community Circles are your place to connect more intentionally with other Beth Am members around a shared interest or life stage. Community Circles are open to members of Congregation Beth Am and are coordinated by congregants. Beth Am staff is available to help connect members to and/or create a Community Circle. Community Circles are an opportunity to try something new with other members of the Beth Am community.
A Community Circle can be organized around anything; an activity, craft, age and stage in life, cultural interests, Jewish or not. Specific examples could include: hiking after Youth Ed drop off, volunteering together, photography, pickleball, wine tasting, celebrating Shabbat together or single parents. If you’re interested in doing it and already have some folks in mind or want help finding others who share your interest, our Engagement & Experience Manager, Paige Kaplan, and members of her Engagement & Experience Team will help you get started.
Beth Am Community Circles are open to members of Congregation Beth Am.  We are currently in a Pilot Phase and seeking ideas for Community Circles in which our members aged 45-65 would be interested in participating. Community Circles will vary in size depending on the type of group and activity. We recommend 3-18 participants depending on the topic or activity.
All that’s needed to start a Circle is an idea and one or more people willing to coordinate. Any member can join as many Circles as they feel they can actively participate in. Whether you have an idea for a Circle or are not sure what you might like to do, please take a look at this Community Circle Interest Form. We’ll do our best to connect you to others and form a Circle. We will also be listing our Community Circles on the Beth Am website, so check back often.
Meeting time, place and frequency will be determined by the Circle’s coordinator and those participating in the Circle. To create and foster friendships we encourage Circles to meet 6 times over a 3 month period. At the end of 3 months, members can opt to keep the Circle going or disband.
If you think you might like to participate in a Community Circle, please click on this Community Circle Interest Form to tell us what you’re interested in exploring with other Beth Am members.

Community Circle Offerings

Our current Community Circle offerings are listed below. Please reach out to the Paige Kaplan with your questions and interest. She will get back to you with more details about the meetings and activities, and add you to your Circle list(s) of interest.

Don’t see a Circle for you? Please let Paige know if you have an idea for a Circle want to coordinate a new Community Circle.

We look forward to building community together!

Hiking Groups

Youth Ed Parent Hiking Group
Meet and chat with other youth ed parents while getting some exercise in the beautiful Los Altos Hills. This Circle will start hiking during Sunday Program in September. Please email Paige Kaplan if you are interested.

Additional Hiking Group(s) Don't have kids in Youth Ed? Join fellow Beth Am hikers for moderate hikes in the area. Dates, times and hike locales TBD by the group or groups.

Pick Up 2x2 Basketball

Like to play basketball, but want to keep it fun and injury free(ish)? Join other Beth Am members for 2X2 basketball. Dates, times and courts TBD by the group.

Pickleball

Love to play pickleball? Have no idea what it is? Join other Beth Am members to learn and play this popular game. We have arranged a beginners class from 3:30pm-5:00pm on August 14th, which is full. If you would like to be included in our next class, please email Paige Kaplan.

This Circle is still looking for coordinators. Dates, times and court locales TBD by the group.

Register for Beginners Pickleball Class on August 14, 2022.

Art & Wine

If you enjoy getting creative and want to share/learn new forms of art with fine (or not so fine) wine, join this Circle of six fellow enthusiasts that will meet monthly or every other month to craft together.

Board Games

Come play with us over dessert. We enjoy games such as 6 Nimmt, Concept, Just one, Hanabi, and Codenames. If you want to know more, join on every other Tuesday 7-8:30pm on the Social Hall Patio. Email Marcy Tivol with questions or to be added to the group.

Parents with older teens, young adults in college and beyond.

Connect with other parents whose kids are mostly grown and almost flown. Dates and events TBD by the group.

Audio Visual

Do you miss your high school or college days of running the tech booth? Or have always wanted to learn? This Circle will learn how to use and run our streaming tech with the goal of helping to stream services and Beth Am events and help with tech set up as we continue to stream programming in our new hybrid environment.

The Tahiti Project

(A Community Circle for parents with older teens, young adults in college and beyond)
Coordinated by Jennifer and Nicole, this Community Circle is for those with older kids and adult children whose original connection to Beth Am was through their kids, who want to meet new people, to find a smaller community within Beth Am, and are looking to do an empty nest, post-COVID reset. This fun group’s name “The Tahiti Project” started as a joke about the kinds of activities they might do together — why not a trip to Tahiti?! This Circle will do a range of activities together twice each month through September of 2022.

This Circle is full, but if it sounds like something you’d enjoy, please contact Paige Kaplan and she’ll connect you with others. Who knows where your group might go!

B’Yachad (Together)

Coordinated by Zach Whitman, this Community Circle is for single adults over 40 years of age. B'Yachad is fun, with unlimited possibilities and easy to  participate in. Come join this welcoming group if you are a single member of Congregation Beth Am in your 40’s, 50's or 60's and up for experiences built around socializing, community service, temple, nature and more. If you are not yet part of B'Yachad, but would like to consider joining us or have some questions, contact Zach. We are happy to include you in our group.

Wed, August 10 2022 13 Av 5782