The Board of Ahavas Israel recently replaced our mission statement with a Core Values statement. We want to:
- Be a caring, connected community
- Be a community of Jews engaged in becoming more fully Jewish, embarking on a lifetime journey of Jewish discovery

Towards this end, the Board directed an ad hoc Havurah committee to create a number of small groups, havurot, within the congregation. The primary purpose of the groups is to create social connections among our members. Each person and household within the congregation will be invited to become a part of one of these groups. Initially, we are asking only that you try it for three months. If you (and the group) like the experience, you may continue to meet for a longer period of time. If you decide that it’s not working, you might switch to a different group, the group might change its focus or disband, all of its members choosing a different group.

Each havurah will have an initial leader, whose role will be to convene the havurah with an initial activity, engage the group in a discussion to clarify its purpose, and schedule future meetings. In addition to the social function, some groups might have a more explicit Jewish learning component - watching Jewish movies, celebrating Shabbat and holidays, exploring kosher food, studying Jewish topics. The Havurah committee will develop some materials for Havurot to use for study and discussion, but it will be up to each Havurah to decide the nature of the Jewish component of their time together.

Please choose your top three (3) choices from the following options:

***Personal/Family Defined Groups:***
- Families with young children Havurah
- LGBTQ+ Havurah
- Mothers Havurah

***Topic Defined groups:***
- Board and card games Havurah
- Hiking, biking and other outdoor activities Havurah
- Movie Lovers (Jewish or Israeli) Havurah
- Photography Havurah
- Vegan Topics & Cooking Havurah
- Wine tasters (21 and up) Havurah