I went to nursery school and Hebrew school at Har Shalom. I was Bar Mitzvahed here…read more I love our building. It is truly beautiful. Our sanctuaries and social hall are amazing. Our community has always been a very welcoming place. One Yelper Ana wrote about concerns about Rabbi Raskin. I share her concerns. The Rabi does not like to meet with people regardless of whether or not they're of his faith. I was in an awful car accident, through the fault of another driver, and am truly blessed to be alive, The Rabbi did not return my calls and would not meet with me in my home as I recovered despite my attempts to contact him. He finally called when I left a message for somebody else telling them how disappointed I was. The rabbi still would not meet with me despite my home being less than a mile from our synagogue and walkable for any healthy person. This was well before Corona. Months later, it is easily walkable for me. Why would I want to meet with such a clergyman? I saw an Orthodox Jew wearing a Yamika on the street and he gladly said the Mishaberach with me, when my Rabbi would not. I hope this review motivates the Rabbi to change the way he does his job for the good of our synagogue community.

Our family has had such an overwhelmingly positive experience at the Sherman Early Childhood Center…read moreand Congregation Har Shalom over the past few years. We feel so very fortunate to have found this beautiful place and could not recommend this unique community more highly to other families. The Sherman ECC at Har Shalom: We did a lot of research into the various preschool options in the Potomac-Rockville-Bethesda area before we found the Sherman ECC. This preschool is a magical place, a life-changing experience for your family and your child. We feel such an overwhelming amount of gratitude to the extraordinary teachers at the Sherman ECC for their dedication to our children. Beth Hoch is the Director of the Sherman ECC and she is simply spectacular. Beth has a genuine gift for educating young children and interacting with families. We interviewed dozens of preschool directors when we were researching the preschools in the area, and Beth truly stood out as someone inherently gifted in her role as Director of the ECC. Congregation Har Shalom: After joining the Sherman ECC, we started attending community events and prayer services at the Har Shalom synagogue. We had the same fabulous experience at the synagogue. Rabbi Adam Raskin fosters a true sense of community and friendship throughout the synagogue and his sermons are genuinely interesting and accessible to people at all levels of religious observance. He is also very approachable: the kids run up to him during services for a chocolate or many chocolates, he walks around shaking hands with congregants, and he also visits with everyone individually after prayer services. The prayer services and other community events are often also led by Cantor Henrique Ozur Bass, another spectacular member of the Har Shalom clergy. Cantor Ozur Bass is extremely approachable, supportive, kind, friendly and funny. It has been such an absolute pleasure to participate in his prayer services over the past few years. He leads the children in singing Jewish songs and melodies every Friday morning, and we used to love attending as a family before COVID. Rabbi Rachel Simmons recently joined the synagogue and has done a nice job with holding events that young families can attend, from rockin' Shabbat to ice cream socials to Yoga Shabbat.

I went here for High Holy Services since I was in Maryland for that this year and what a great…read morechoice!! The Cantor is honestly angelic in both appearance and voice. The Rabbi is so warm and friendly, I spoke to him on the phone for about 10 minutes before I came to pick up my tickets. The whole congregation was so warm and inviting, if I was living in the area permanently (and living closer as Gaithersburg is quite schlep) I would definitely consider membership here. Just a really great community! I am so glad I was able to spend some time here and wish I could pack the Rabbi & Cantor and take them back with me.

Absolutely amazing community! Very warm and inviting, the building is gorgeous yet very spiritual…read moreand cozy. uplifting prayer and beautiful prayers/tunes. And a great and complimentary Kiddush community lunch following services.

As a casually religious person, I had a really good experience. While the entire liturgy was in…read moreHebrew, the members of the community were very embracing to me. Considering they just met me, I really felt welcomed. Positive experience.

Machar is my home! After being schooled in Reform Judaism, saying words I didn't really believe in,…read moreI found myself in a congregation that not only respects a variety of views, but also encourages logical thinking-- all in the pursuit of our common goals: to make sense of our place on earth so that we can do tikkan olum , we can repair the world and have fun at the same time. Machar is my home!

My wife and I joined Machar because we want our daughters to experience Jewish life, but we are not…read morecomfortable with a lot of the traditional theistic prayers. Machar's perfect for us, and the new rabbi, Nehama Benmosche, is energetic, thoughtful, and great with kids. (Full disclosure: I was until recently a board member of Machar.)

Wonderful friendly atmosphere. Great classes, lots of social activities. Like the rabbis and the…read morecantor

So much of our time in secular Washington DC is consumed in the accumulation of visible…read moreachievements, and it's by those externalities that we are judged and measured. How we make a living, our financial and professional rank, how many boards we sit on, what we've published, where we live, where our kids go to school, where we vacation, and on and on--these are the externalities that largely govern the relationships we form. We go to Tifereth Israel to lay down those embellishments, and be more truly ourselves, in the company of people who have embraced lives of meaning and engagement. Simply show up to morning services (even if you don't care for services, just be patient and hang there a couple of times), and then stay for the Kiddush and talk and listen to people. You do that often enough, then you'll notice over time that you've begun to form deep, lasting, values-driven, and authentic relationships that sustain and nourish you in a way that you rarely, if ever, find in the secular world. Yes, Tifereth Israel checks the other boxes: the rabbi is phenomenally talented, services are mostly lay-led and intellectually challenging, the congregation is extremely LGBTQ-friendly, there are several active social-action initiatives, it's got a ton of young families with children, and a vibrant education program serves kids and adults. But the main asset at TI that you can't have anywhere else? It's the people.

Conservative. Very…read morefriendly and inviting. Medium sized. Simpler (less jappy) than other DC shuls.

We went through a really rough patch when my wife was pregnant with our third kid. She was…read moredangerously sick with chest pains and worse that kept us bouncing from specialist to specialist, trying to tease out exactly what was wrong. I was doing my best trying to be there for her and our two girls and keep up with work as the sole breadwinner (fortunately, I work from home), and our household was kind of falling apart. I shared some of what was going on to friends at Oseh's religious school, where my oldest daughter was a student. About a day later, they had organized a Meal Train for us of fellow members who came almost daily for two weeks to bring healthy meals and help share the chores and childcare. I can't express how much that meant to us. It gave us enough breathing room to figure out the issue at last and turn things around; a few months later, our son was born happy and healthy! I'd been happy to be a member at Oseh Shalom before, but that experience really transformed the way I saw the synagogue and the people in it. This is a valuable place to be a part of through highs and lows in life alike, full of caring, multitalented people. I'm delighted that my kids will be growing up here the way my wife did.

This synagogue is exactly what we were hoping for. Oseh welcomes all; traditional Jewish families,…read moreintermarried families, mixed race and LGBT families. Oseh's religious school has done a great job accommodating student special needs without any stigma whatsoever. Some of our favorite things about Oseh: the people, the focus on Tikkun Olam through the Winter Shelter, the relationship with Elizabeth House and the Laurel Area Shelter and Food Bank, Teen Connect activities, religious school electives like cooking and Israeli Dance. One student even raised money and sought volunteers to build our own Gaga pit. It's wonderful at Oseh!

Saturday night Trio Sefardi presenting La Nona Kanta, the remarkable life of Flory Jagoda. This…read morelive music venue offered history of the musical instruments used, the translation of the lyrics and wonderful harmony.

My wife and I found Adat Shalom when we were synagogue shopping prior to becoming parents. When we…read moremet the community, and the young rabbi at the time, Sid Schwarz, we knew there was no question, this was the right place for us. I personally loved the work of the social action committee like Sukkot in April, the principles that Reconstructionism stands for like ordaining LGBT rabbis, and ultimately a great place to raise my family -- where they felt connected to something much bigger. This Community is blessed with a diverse group of incredibly smart and good people.