page_title: Bet Mishpachah
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Bet Mishpachah / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Washington, D.C. Jewish Community Center (DCJCC) located at 1529 16th Street, N.W., in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
context_page_description: Bet Mishpachah 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 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.
  Sabbath worship services and most religious and educational programs are held at the Washington, D.C. Jewish Community Center.
context_section_description: 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.
  In 1980, the congregation formally adopted its present name, Bet Mishpachah, "House of Family," and co-founded the World Congress of Gay & Lesbian Jews at the Third International Conference of Gay & Lesbian Jews, in San Francisco, California. In 1985, the congregation hosted the Ninth International Conference of the World Congress of Gay & Lesbian Jews.
  In 1991, Bet Mishpachah hired its first rabbi—on a part-time basis, Robert Saks. During that same year, it purchased its second Torah Scroll. Like the first one, this was an historic scroll. It was written in 1917 in Czarist Russia, but never mounted on Etzei Chaim, the wooden poles to which the parchment is attached, and never used in synagogue services.
  Also in 1991, the synagogue published its own siddur, prayerbook, for Sabbath/Shabbat and festivals. In 1992, a second prayerbook, Ti'filot Nachumim (Prayers of Consolation), was created for use during shiva worship—special prayers during the first week following the death of a loved one, and memorial services.
  In 1997, the congregation moved to the newly restored and reopened Washington, D.C. Jewish Community Center (closed since 1968). The following year, 1998, work was completed on a special five-volume High Holy Days machzor, prayerbook, "Chadeish Yameinu" ("Renew Our Days").
  In 1998, the congregation hosted the Eighth Eastern Regional Conference of the World Congress of GLBT Jews, and in 2000, engaged its second rabbi, again on a part-time basis, Rabbi Leila Gal Berner. Rabbi Berner remained with the congregation through 2004.
  In 2009, Rabbi Saks retired and became the official rabbi emeritus of the congregation. That same year, Toby Manewith began serving as rabbi.  In 2013 Laurie Green replaced Toby Manewith as rabbi.  In 2019 Rabbi Jake Singer-Beilin replaced Laurie Green.
  The congregation has also started a cemetery located in SE DC called Bet Mishpachah Cemetery
caption: Washington, D.C. Jewish Community Center, Home of Bet Mishpachah
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