Congregation B’nai Tzedek

I grew up as a member of this is the synagogue. I have only the fondest of memories of this place, and on my very few returns since high school I have not been disappointed. Rabbi Weinblatt is an incredibly engaging and insightful speaker with a veritable command of Jewish humor. When my family joined in 1996 the congregation was less than 5 years old and thus featured a younger demographic. Since that time the congregation has aged a little bit and attendance on Saturdays is a bit lower because there are fewer Bar Mitzvahs. Nonetheless, there are a good 1000 people here on the High Holidays. Back in the day I believe the synogogue’s membership included over 500 families. The pastoral Potomac campus features an absolutely beautiful building that I’d characterize as Mediteranean Postmodern. There is even a small stream on the back side of the property that is used to throw bread into the water on Rosh Hashanah (Tashlich).
This is a Conservative Synagogue but the Rabbi speaks in english when delivering many of his thoughts on the Parsha. Men and women are mixed at this shul, but all of the Torah reading is done in Hebrew. This synagogue is noticably more conservative and slightly smaller than Washington Hebrew and Temple Beth-​El. This very vibrant Jewish community is the bar by which I’ve always metered synagogues I’ve been to since.