We are a Reform Synagogue, founded in 1981 and made up of more than 750 households. Governed by a 18-member Board of Trustees, and led by Senior Rabbi David Locketz, Associate Rabbi Jill Crimmings, Cantor Richard Schwartz, and Executive Director, Stephen Barberio, we are a progressive congregation that provides a sacred community for worship, study, and Tikkun Olam.
In the spring of 1981, a small group of families formed Bet Shalom and, after hiring its first senior rabbi, Rabbi Norman Cohen, the congregation served a small, growing membership out of the Sabes JCC in St. Louis Park for its first two and a half years. After moving to its first home in downtown Hopkins in 1984, our humble congregation began to grow, attracting individuals and families that resonated with the idea that Bet Shalom could be a family of friends: a place where we could laugh, cry, love, and grieve as we practice our Judaism together.
Cantor Lipsett-Allison, z”l, joined Rabbi Cohen on the Bimah and, in 2002, we opened our new building in Minnetonka, which provides space for Bet Shalom Yeladim, our preschool that now serves more than 40 children, room for expansion of our youth education and engagement programs, and a lovely sanctuary that, serves as an intimate worship space on Shabbat and one large enough to serve the congregation on the High Holy Days.
Today, we are more than a congregation, we are a community. We are single, married, widowed and divorced. We are LGBTQ, and we are straight. We are single parents, coupled parents, Jews by birth and Jews by choice. We are proud of this diversity and provide a variety of ways for each individual to express his or her Judaism.
