Celebrate with CBS
The Center of Jewish Life in the Napa Valley is 70 years old!
Our congregation has deep roots in Napa and are proud to be able to have the community's support these many decades. Get together with us and celebrate this amazing landmark from May through to August with a wide range of events and programs.
Anniversary Jew-bilee
A weekend full of brilliant celebration all at the CBS Campus!
Friday night, May 19th Anniversary Shabbat with honorees; will be a very special Shabbat service beginning at 6pm and following the service there will be an oneg.
Saturday, May 20th Wine, Dine and Dance; join for an evening of wine, dine, and dance. Sure to be a night to remember with historical presentation, honoree acknowledgments, catered dinner and dancing.
Sunday, May 21st Sunday Funday; will bring the whole community together with programming for all ages.
Summer Salon Series
CBS will host Napa Center for Thought & Culture's four intellectually engaging salons through July and August each with light refreshments.
July 13th 7pm
Dating in the 21st Century; In the 1990’s, Dr. Adelman and Dr. Ahuvia took seriously the role of dating services in assisting people to meet. Their research explores how these services redefine dating, the interface of romance and marketing, and the challenges of mate-seeking. They published extensively in academic journals, appeared on Oprah Winfrey, and committed themselves to reducing the stigma of “matchmaking” services. Today, online encounters are pervasive in the dating world.
July 15th 7pm
An Evening of Jewish Music: “The Singing Rabbi Ahuvia” Come join us for a lively evening of global Jewish music from the ages to today. Rabbi Aura Ahuvia will share peace songs, traditional Yiddish and Ladino tunes, dance melodies, and Jewish music from around-the-world. She will also speak to the question: What makes Jewish music Jewish? Rabbi Aura Ahuvia considered cantorial school before deciding to become a rabbi. She loves integrating her passion for Jewish music with religious traditions. Last year, Rabbi Ahuvia was featured at the annual “Cantorial Concert” at Congregation Am Tikvah, San Francisco. For the past two decades Rabbi Ahuvia has provided spiritually moving leadership through teaching and song.
July 16th 2pm
Why we love stuff: Join Aaron Ahuvia, PhD., Professor of Marketing and author of the recent book The Things We Love: How Our Passions Connect Us and Make Us Who We Are, Little, Brown Spark, 2022. Dr. Ahuvia is the world’s expert on brand love and our attachment to things (vs people). He spent over 20 years researching our love of objects and the role of materialism in creating identity. His book explores the differences in loving a person vs loving an object, our attachments to stuff and brands, and the consequences for everyday life.
August 17th 7pm
The Atheist meets the Rabbi. Bob Seidensticker’s first career was in computers, where he designed digital hardware and software. He is a co-contributor to 14 software patents and wrote Future Hype: The Myths of Technology Change (Berrett-Koehler, 2006). For more than a decade, Bob has explored his current passion, atheism. His latest book is 2-Minute Christianity, he blogs at www.onlysky.media/bob-seidensticker, and he is an occasional speaker on the subject.
August 20th 2pm
Tribute to Barbara Myerhoff: Academy Award winning film in 1977, Number Our Days (with filmmaker Lynne Littman), is based on Barbara Myerhoff’s field work
with elderly Jews, who form bonds at a local community center, The Israel Levin Center in Venice, California. Considered one of the greatest anthropologists of our times, Myerhoff’s work created a new field in academe, visual anthropology. When Myerhoff was diagnosed with terminal cancer at age 45, she joined Lynne Littman in making a film, In Her Own Time, about her search for Judaism. Myerhoff died in 1985, but her legacy remains. In 2000, the Jewish Women’s Archive selected Barbara Myerhoff to be a Woman of Valor.
Filmmaker, Lynne Littman, renown documentarian, received the Academy Award for Best Short Documentary in 1977. She also received four Los Angeles Emmy Awards, from 1972 to 1974 and again in 1977. Lynne will join us for this tribute.
L'chaim: Food & Wine Festival
Day full of food, wine, music and all at the CIA Copia Campus!
Sunday, August 27th will bring the whole community together with programming for all ages.Participation of more then 15 wineries and local food vendors.