 For 20 years, Congregation Bet Ha’am has been the spiritual home for Reform Jews in Southern Maine. Founded with a spirit of warmth and welcome, we have created a community known for being inviting, accessible, and unpretentious.
We ‘make do’ in our current building. We use every inch of available space, yet we are still bursting at the seams. In our new spiritual home we will be able to observe and celebrate all Jewish life cycle events. Contributing to the Capital Campaign is our opportunity to make the dream a reality for our current members as well as for the generations that come after us.
—Rosie Wohl, President of Bet Ha’am.
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 Congregation Bet Ha’am was founded by a small number of visionaries who sought inspirational and joyful worship in the Reform Jewish tradition. Our name, Bet Ha’am—House of the People—reflects our welcoming and inclusive approach to congregational life. Our diversity helps make us who we are.
Congregation Bet Ha’am has grown to more than 400 households and has become firmly established as a thriving religious community. For years, we have dreamed of worshipping and learning in our own building, specially designed for our Congregation. Now is the time to create our permanent home. We must Build Our Legacy and provide a spiritual space to meet our current and future needs.
Architects Brigitte Shim and Howard Sutcliffe have translated our community’s needs and desires—and our core values—into a visionary design. Together we have created a plan that embodies our spiritual, educational, social and administrative needs.
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 As a Reform congregation, we believe that creativity and progress are essential to religious life and that each generation must seek to bring contemporary relevance to the beliefs and practices of our religious tradition.
—Rabbi David Sandmel, Bet Ha’am’s first Rabbi
Education for All Ages
All aspects of congregational life encourage learning and continuing spiritual growth. Parents help instill these values each time they bring their children to Tot Shabbat and Family Services. Our Religious School, which provides a strong foundation of Jewish learning, serves more than 200 students from kindergarten through high school. Parents regularly participate in special family programs and in Boker Tov (Good Morning) our Religious School assembly for grades K-3. Our teachers are all volunteers committed to sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm with younger generations.
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 Religious school is a time for families to learn together. Children and parents touch the sacred Torah scroll, sometimes for the first time for parent and child. Just as they touch the ancient parchment, so do the Torah’s teachings touch our children and families. —Rabbi Alice Dubinsky
Lifelong learning is embraced at Bet Ha’am. Educational programming includes Introduction to Judaism, Scholar-in-Residence weekends, retreats, and noontime “Lunch and Learn” seminars. Evening classes are as varied as modern Hebrew, Jewish mysticism, Jewish History and Law. Shabbat morning Torah study is a highlight of the week and is filled with lively discussion of the week’s Parsha. The adult Bar and Bat Mitzvah class is the jewel in the crown.
Education thrives at Bet Ha’am, but not without challenges. Students spill out of classrooms into the hallways and adult education classes compete for limited space. Everyone will benefit from the larger classrooms and flexible spaces in the renovated Sawyer School.
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 We are the people of the Book. Because study and knowledge are essential fundamentals in our tradition, our library will literally connect the Sanctuary with our Religious School. This multimedia center for learning will provide ample space for the thousands of volumes we now own and for new books and other media. In its central location, the Library will be a Beit Midrash—a place for study, meeting and prayer—reflecting the soul of Bet Ha’am.
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 The building design translates all that is Congregation Bet Ha’am—our core values, traditions, and spirit—into the language of architecture. Our architects have thoughtfully crafted a simple and yet elegant plan to enhance our congregational experience by making Bet Ha’am a more functional and comfortable home for the activities that are important to our community: worship, education, life cycle events, and social functions.
We have spent a lot of time listening to the many voices of Bet Ha’am. You have ascribed the warmth, openness, accessibility and spirituality that are special qualities of your congregation. In your new home, the journey from your entry court towards the sanctuary will encompass views of gardens; the sanctuary will be bathed in warm light, allowing each member of your congregation to make a meaningful transition from the secular to the holy.
—Brigitte Shim, Shim-Sutcliffe Architects
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 We are planning a 13,000 square foot addition to the existing Sawyer School building to house the sanctuary, social hall and library. The Sawyer School—13,000 square feet—will be fully renovated to serve as our Religious School and
administrative offices.
The new sanctuary will accommodate approximately 350 worshipers. For High Holy Day services, the sanctuary and adjacent social hall will be combined to accommodate as many as 700 people. The Bimah and Ark are moveable and will always be central for our worshipers.
Energy-efficient designs have been incorporated and include high quality insulation and windows along with a modern heating and cooling system. The building will be fully accessible and building materials will be environmentally responsible, hypo-allergenic and non-toxic.
The site will be creatively landscaped with protective berms so that the view from the sanctuary will be of trees and sky, bringing the beauty of our natural environment into our worship space.
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 The innovative design reflects the visionary spirit that founded Congregation Bet Ha’am. When our new home is built, Reform Jews throughout Southern Maine will have a beautiful and dynamic House of the People that will enable us to hold High Holy Day services and enable us to meet our needs for space in which to worship, learn and grow for generations to come.
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Rabbi Alice Dubinsky inspires her congregation with her heartfelt love of Torah and joyful worship. Bet Ha'am has a long tradition of active participation in worship services. With our sanctuary often packed to capacity, the Rabbi's lyrical Shabbat services are filled with voices singing in unison.
On Friday night everyone is singing: even people who don't know the words or the melodies join in! The energy and spirit of the congregation lift each of us and lift our prayers to God. The pure joy of Shabbat courses through body and soul. Although some people may come to the service alone, no one leaves feeling alone.
-Rabbi Alice Dubinsky
Overcrowding in the sanctuary has become an obstacle in many ways. Our building design envisions a sanctuary that will enable us to worship together comfortably at all times - there will be ample space to sing and dance on Simchat Torah; room to seat dozens of invited guests who join our congregants when a Bar or Bat Mitzvah is called to the Torah on Shabbat morning; and space for hundreds to celebrate with the Bride and Groom under the Chuppah.
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 Each of us now has an opportunity to build upon the solid foundation of our established Congregation and add to the legacy of expanding the traditions of Reform Judaism in Southern Maine.
Building Our Legacy requires a substantial financial commitment from each and every member of our community. We are all needed to help provide Moreshet Dorot—A Legacy for Generations. Building Our Legacy begins with all of us.
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