Who We Are
From our President - Stacy Menzer
Whether you are a newcomer or a longtime member of our congregation, welcome!
25 years ago, I was among a small group of East Enders who came together to form a synagogue. There wasn’t a Conservative-movement synagogue out here. We thought we needed one. Beyond that, we were all looking for different things.
What we’ve become isn’t the synagogue I thought I wanted back then— it’s so much more. Over the years, this community has helped me discern what I really yearned for, and didn’t know I was missing. That’s true for a lot of us. We come looking for one thing, and find infinitely more.
Whatever brought you here, I hope you’ll decide to explore further — in person, online, at a service, an event, a meal. I’ll bet you’ll find bridges to places you never imagined could feel so like home.
"I never thought I would find a synagogue experience that was meaningful for me. Having always been a spiritual person, I found yoga and meditation more meaningful . What the Bridge Shul gives me is a sense of oneness in a loving community." — Carol S.
Our Community
We are a small, caring community of people from diverse backgrounds who are committed to exploring the ways that traditional learning can shine a light on the challenges of contemporary life.
We are straight, queer and questioning.
We are married, partnered and single, parents and caregivers.
We live on Eastern Long Island, New York City, and around the globe.
We have an extensive Jewish education, we’re new to Jewish learning.
We grew up Jewishly connected and observant, we grew up culturally Jewish or secular, we were raised in other faiths.
We always loved synagogue, we never used to like synagogue, we never used to go to synagogue.
We’re passionate, ambivalent, curious, believing, doubting, challenging, celebrating, grieving, seeking, yearning, hopeful, scared and courageous. Sometimes all at the same time.
All of us are committed to being kind, treating others with respect and care, listening deeply, sharing of ourselves, exploring differences, and growing together.
All of us are inspired by Rabbi Uhrbach’s teaching, replenished by Rabbi Boino’s music, and eager to learn in a community that is unafraid to take up the questions that really matter to us.
"Although I am an online member, I am a valued part of the congregation. There is no such thing as ‘just’ an online member." — Toni S.
Our History
Our 10th Anniversary Celebration
In 1998, at the beginning of what became a Jewish renaissance on eastern Long Island, a small group of year-round Hamptons residents met to discuss their desire for a conservative-movement-affiliated synagogue in the area. The idea brought together people with different but congenial interests. Some wanted the intimacy and depth of living room-style prayer and learning, others were looking for intellectual and spiritual challenge, all were seeking community.
Formed as the Conservative Synagogue of the Hamptons, the group held its first Shabbat service in May, 1998, meeting in a donated storefront space in East Hampton, with lay-led services. Soon thereafter, the congregation moved to the Old Whaler’s Church in Sag Harbor, NY.
In January 1999, the synagogue hired Jan Uhrbach, then a first-year rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary, to lead services once a month. Her vision has shaped the community’s development ever since.
Once ordained, Rabbi Uhrbach almost immediately began bringing JTS students to be mentored and help lead services. In 2013 — the same year we moved to Bridgehampton — Michael Boino, then in his second year at JTS, joined us as the Ken Kolker Rabbinic Intern. We are so fortunate that he has chosen to continue to share his extraordinary gifts with us since his ordination.
We’re especially proud that for 25 years, we’ve resisted the pressure to build our own building, keeping our focus on people rather than brick and mortar, partnering with neighboring churches in mutually beneficial ways, and modeling the way that Torah and Judaism belong in the home. Last year, we began a relationship with the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, where we hold our High Holy Day services.
As the synagogue marks its 25th anniversary, we celebrate a history that its founders never could have foreseen, but one of which all of us are extremely proud.
Our Torah Scrolls
The Bridge Shul is privilged to have two Torah scrolls.
The large scroll was a gift from the Bayside Jewish Center in Queens, given to us in honor of our beloved member, Ed Gotbetter, z”l.
Our smaller scroll (and small ark) was rescued from the Holocaust by Rabbi Louis Barish, z”l, and is generously on loan to us by his daughter, Leora Barish, who wrote of the scroll’s remarkable history:
In 1946, my father was sent to Stuttgart to work in the office of Jewish Affairs, an Army liaison whose mission was to help the Jews of Germany who were still confined in DP camps, living in desperate conditions, "liberated" but not free. One day, my father's assistant came and said, “I'm sorry to disturb you, Rabbi, but a German is asking to see you.”
“Who is this German?” asked my father.
“Just a man, said the assistant, “We told him to go away but he won't, he insists that he has to speak to "the rabbi".
My father said, “Well then, go and bring him in.”
The assistant reluctantly ushered in the German… He stared at my father for a moment, then he spoke without emotion. "There have been no rabbis around here for a long time... I have a secret I want to reveal, but I can only reveal it to a rabbi. Now that you're here and I've found you, please, let us go quickly." …
Our Affiliates
We identify with Judaism’s Conservative Movement, which is grounded in the realization that a religious life must sit with a number of irresolvable tensions in values and beliefs: individualism and communitarianism, Jewish particularism and universal human values, humility and awe for tradition coupled with courage and responsibility in envisioning a more just, inclusive future. Our synagogue is a member of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism.
We use the Lev Shalem prayerbook series (of which Rabbi Uhrbach is associate editor), published by the Conservative Movement’s Rabbinical Assembly.
We support the Jewish Theological Seminary, where our rabbis were educated and ordained, and where Rabbi Jan Uhrbach currently teaches and directs the Block/Kolker Center for Spiritual Arts.
“I also deeply appreciate having a female-led shul. While the shul is part of the modern Conservative movement, the very nature of the synagogue's leadership means that we are in constant dialogue with Jewish tradition and scholarship…We are part of an ongoing discussion about the meaning of justice and responsibility, the value of both tradition and change and growth, that enables us to support and sustain our synagogue community as one that is inclusive, diverse, and loving.”
— Rachel L.