Sure. It's nice to be here. Thank you for inviting me. Um, around the turn of the century, maybe 1889 or 1898, 1899, um, families from two small towns in Lithuania, um found themselves or came to Bellingham, Washington, a small city in the very upper northwest corner of the United States. Probably, um, while to escape persecution in Lithuania and to take advantage of, uh, probably to take advantage of the Klondike Gold Rush, which was occurring at that time. So Bellingham was a booming, booming community, um, on the route to Alaska. And, um, these were Orthodox Jews. And, uh, there was, um, not very many of them. And they were, um, really the first Jews, probably in Bellingham. Uh, a few years later, families from Germany also arrived, uh, in Bellingham and uh, also Orthodox, but, uh, practicing a different kind of Judaism probably than the Lithuanian Jews. But they were the only Jews in town. So they got together and they started to have services. Um, eventually, uh, the families grew, more Jews arrived, and, um, they became more organized in their services and in, around, uh, I think 1906, 1910, they actually, um, um, sort of formalized the relationship. They rented a space and Congregation Beth Israel, uh, came into being, um, eventually. Uh oh. And then they would have, like itinerant rabbis would just sort of come through town and they would take advantage of that. And eventually, um, they bought a building on Broadway Street in Bellingham, and that became our home for Congregation Beth Israel. And we, uh, families continued to grow. We would get a permanent rabbi. Then the depression hit, and, um, Bellingham was hit hard by the depression. Uh, families left. Uh, Jewish activity dwindled. Um, and then, uh, in the 1950s, families started to go into Bellingham again. The congregation grew and, um, uh, a cantor from Vancouver, British Columbia, came down and essentially became a rabbi for like 30 years. And that was, um, Rabbi Fred Gardner and, um, uh, to make a long story short, uh, more and more Jews arrived in Bellingham. We definitely outgrew the small, um, show on Broadway Street, and plans were devised to create a new synagogue, um, and a new campus. We we had, um, we grew from a congregation of 60 families, and now we have a congregation of over 250 Family units, which is pretty incredible. Um, and so three years ago, about three years ago, we moved into a brand new synagogue. It's on a campus with acreage, and, uh, it's really quite fabulous. And it was an amazing, um, event that that accomplishment for a community of our size, um, thanks to very generous individual donors and a lot of hard work and planning. Anyhow, so that's the story, uh, of how we came to be where we are. I just want to emphasize that our our community really is the only show in town. Uh, we we have, um, um, a variety of different types of practicing Jewish people. Um, we were originally Orthodox. Uh, finally, Rabbi Gardner, um, said to the women up in the balcony in balcony and the original show come on down to the main floor. And and so our practice became more conservative, but really, um, um, the practice that we and we never, uh, are formally affiliated with the conservative movement and the practice of the vast majority of the Jews in Skagit and Whatcom County who attend Congregation Beth Israel is reform. And and the congregation came to grips with that when we needed to find a new rabbi, when, uh, and we, uh, formally affiliated with the reform movement and, um, had the assistance of the reform movement to find us, uh, our current rabbi, Rabbi Samuels, who has just been fabulous. So, so we believe that the reform, our reform practice can encompass everybody's, um, ritual practice. Can can we have a conservative minyan on Saturday mornings and, um, our, our most of our services are conducted in Hebrew. Um, and so we all inclusiveness is really the foundation stone of our congregation.
