About Us

Overview

Congregation Beth Israel is an active and vibrant Reform Jewish congregation in Houston, serving more than 1,500 households throughout the Greater Houston area. Established in 1854, we are the oldest Jewish congregation in Texas with a rich history in Texas and Houston. Located in southwest Houston, our campus is convenient to downtown, the Medical Center, Galleria, and central and west Houston with easy freeway accessibility. Congregation Beth Israel maintains an active affiliation with the Union for Reform Judaism, the national Reform movement.

With an outstanding clergy team, led by Senior Rabbi David Lyon, Congregation Beth Israel offers inspiring weekly Shabbat services, Torah study, and a multitude of enriched educational, cultural, and social programming for all ages. We strive to encourage and be inclusive of all who seek a connection to Jewish life, whatever their needs or backgrounds.

The Miriam Browning Jewish Learning Center, our religious school, and The Shlenker School, our fully accredited elementary school, play integral yet independent roles in the Jewish learning of more than 800 of our children.

Congregation Beth Israel has been a leader in the Reform Jewish Day School movement, opening The Shlenker School in 1984, one of the first in North America and the first in Texas. The Shlenker School provides a fully accredited, academically excellent education with integrated secular and Judaic studies for students from ages 15 months through fifth grade.

Congregation Beth Israel advocates for equality and inclusion. Our Jewish values speak to the idea that each of us, created in God’s image, b’tzelem Elohim, has a unique talent with which we can contribute to the high moral purpose of tikkun olam, the repair of our world. We will not exclude anyone from our community based on race, age, sex, religion, disability, marital or veteran status, nationality, sexual orientation, or gender. Discrimination against others based on any of those factors, or other legally-protected classifications, is prohibited.