When We Ask for an RSVP – Here’s Why It Matters

Everyone is always welcome at HBT—no RSVP is ever needed to attend services. Whether your visit is planned or spontaneous, we’re so glad you’re here.

 That said, if you plan to stay for a meal or attend a special event, we kindly ask that you RSVP. This helps us prepare enough food and seating, ensures we have the right level of staff and volunteers, and allows our security team to plan appropriately. Your RSVP helps us create gatherings that are safe, smooth, and welcoming for everyone.

 Thank you for helping us build joyful and well-run community experiences.

 With much appreciation

Honoring Our Spaces, Embracing Our Future

TEMPLE HILLEL B’NAI TORAH

Honoring Our Spaces, Embracing Our Future

Celebrating growth, memory, and possibility as we expand our Chaverim School and make room for what’s next.

Support HBT’s Next Chapter Explore Chaverim School

Our Update

This summer has been a season of growth and transformation for our building. To meet the needs of our expanding Chaverim School, the Board created a Chaverim Space Task Force to explore how best to accommodate the year ahead. After thoughtful review of several options, the Task Force recommended—and we implemented—an exciting plan that adds two new classrooms by dividing the Chapel and re-imagining the John Cotton Kiddush Room as a flexible, fully enclosed learning space.

In a masterful design led by Moreno Guzman, Facilities Manager, the original ramp was moved behind a new wall and a new door to the lobby was added. The room now has three separate doors—one to the lobby and two to the interior hallway— allowing it to function as a single large classroom or, by closing the folding wall, as two independent classrooms. This smart reconfiguration gives our children, teachers, and programs the flexibility they need to thrive.

We also know that every space in our building carries meaning and memory. The Chapel and Kiddush Room have hosted countless services, celebrations, and moments of community. Even as we embrace change, we honor those connections and the stories they hold. As we move forward, we hold two truths together: the importance of honoring our past and the necessity of making room for our future.

“These changes reflect a vibrant, growing community—we look forward to the new memories we’ll create together.”

— HBT Leadership

Take a Look Inside Our New Classrooms

Bright, flexible spaces designed for learning, creativity, and connection. These new classrooms reflect the heart of our Chaverim School, where children grow, explore, and build Jewish community together.

Who Was John Cotton?

The John Cotton Kiddush Room honors John H. Cotton ז״ל (1948–2009), a beloved leader of Temple Hillel B’nai Torah and a pillar of its growth in the 1990s.

John served first as Vice President and then as President, guiding the challenging early years of our Hebrew School. His steady leadership and gift for collaboration helped transform a fledgling idea into a thriving program that continues today.

John and his wife Vicky Cotton were active members of the West Roxbury Chavurah, and their daughter Rachel grew up in our congregation.

Professionally, John was Senior Vice President and a Board member of the Segal Company, renowned for his clear analysis and candid advice. A lifelong Yankees fan and avid runner, he was admired for his humor, warmth, and dedication to friends and colleagues alike.

John’s sudden passing in 2009 was felt deeply by all who knew him, but his legacy endures. Every gathering in the Kiddush Room honors a man whose vision and devotion helped lay the foundation for our congregation’s future.

It is with בְּכָבוֹד וּבְהַכָּרַת הַטּוֹב — B’kavod u’v’hakarat hatov (“with honor and gratitude”) that we rededicate these rooms in his memory.

1996 Was His Moment

Every generation at HBT reaches a turning point, a moment when the future calls and someone steps forward to lead. In 1996, that moment belonged to John Cotton. Ten years after the West Roxbury Chavurah joined HBT and helped spark a quiet renewal, the congregation was again poised for change.

Membership was growing. We had just hired Rabbi Barbara Penzner, whose leadership brought an entirely new way of doing things. There was energy and excitement, but also the real work of figuring out how to sustain it, how to pay for what we were building, and how to grow responsibly. As president, John met that moment with steadiness and care. He supported the families who were creating the new Hebrew school, adding his own expertise in organization and leadership to help turn their ideas into action while guiding the congregation through a time of transformation.

Under his leadership, what began as an idea became a cornerstone of HBT’s identity: a place where children learn, families gather, and generations grow together. 1996 was John’s time. And now, as we dedicate new classrooms within the John Cotton Kiddush Room, this is our time to carry that same spirit of commitment and renewal forward, honoring John and the circle of leaders, teachers, and families who shared his vision.

Project Milestones

• Spring 2025: Chaverim Space Task Force formed; options study begins.
• Summer 2025: Plan approved by Board; construction scheduled.
• August 2025: Chapel divided; wall added to Kiddush Room creating enclosed learning space.
• September 2025: New classrooms opened for Chaverim School and community programs.

Make a Gift

With Gratitude

Chaverim Space Task Force: Jason Silver (Lead), Andi Lipman, Becky Shapiro, David Goldberg, Matthew Smith, Rachel Young, and Sarah Bob

Hillary Engler — Education Director
Julie Tishler — VP of Education
Aaron Schleifer — VP of Operations
Moreno Guzman — Facilities Manager
Benita Block — Director of Administration and Communications

With support from the Board of Directors • Posted September 9, 2025

Clothing Donations for Immigrants

HBT is collecting donations of spring clothing for adults and children plus toiletries and standard baby clothing and supplies for the Brazilian Welcome Center (Allston) (BWC). Non clothing Items Include:

Menstrual Pads, Body Wipes, mosquito repellent, NIDO powdered milk, Diapers, size 4 and 5, Baby wipes and Boxes of chocolate milk and whole milk. Leave donations in HBT Lobby. Also options to order online and Send to: Brazilian Workers Center: 14 Harvard Ave, Floor 2, Allston, MA 02134. Also check donations can be sent; put FWC in memo line.  For more info on donations go to https://Brazilian center.org/way-to-give/. 

BWC is a clearinghouse for new immigrants providing crucial information and referral services.  

 For questions email sflashman@gmail.com  

RABBI ALIZA SCHWARTZ BLESSED TO BE JOINING THE HBT COMMUNITY

A Message from Rabbi Aliza

Rabbi Aliza Schwartz believes that the work of creating connection and belonging is sacred. She strives to always be a part of bringing people toward one another and toward larger containers of “home.” She feels certain that when we are embraced for our whole selves, we are able to bring our whole selves to everything we do, and communities and worlds deeply benefit. 

In this particular world moment, and always, Rabbi Aliza fights for a deeply-rooted Judaism that stands loudly against racism, loudly against antisemitism, loudly against Islamophobia, and loudly against the systems that allow for dehumanization and that pit humans against one another. She fights for a Judaism that embodies at its root the knowing that all of humanity is sacred, is divine, is made b’tselem elohim, in the image of Gd. 

Rabbi Aliza was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2024. She is a board member of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. During rabbinical school, she worked for two years as a Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) in New York, the world’s largest LGBTQ synagogue. Additionally, she served as an interfaith hospital chaplain and interned at Lions Gate Continuing Care Retirement Community. She spent one year of her rabbinic training in Jerusalem, both studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and doing protective presence and solidarity work, especially in Masafer Yatta, an area home to several Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills of the West Bank.

Before rabbinical school, Rabbi Aliza was in leadership for many years at Kavod, a multi-ethnic, multi-racial community led by young Jews that lives out its values through vibrant Jewish ritual, transformative social justice organizing, and collective responsibility. Rabbi Aliza served on Kavod's board for four years and as Board President for two. Rabbi Aliza worked for about 3.5 years at the New Israel Fund as Assistant Director for the New England Region, and she has been a strategy coach and trainer for IfNotNow, especially in its early years. An alumna of AmeriCorps and JOIN for Justice’s Jewish Organizing Fellowship, Rabbi Aliza served as Community Organizer at Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters. Before that, she spent a year in South Tel Aviv, working with Sudanese and Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers.

Rabbi Aliza is absolutely thrilled, and considers herself deeply blessed, to be joining the HBT community. She also considers herself enormously blessed to be following the rabbinic leadership of Rabbi Emerita Barbara Penzner, after Rabbi Penzner’s 28 years of inspirational leadership of HBT, and she is deeply grateful as well to Rabbi Noyo, for their interim year serving the community. Rabbi Aliza is so excited to build together, pray together, act in the world together, learn together, and be with one another. She cannot wait to get to know each and every person at HBT.

Rabbi Aliza’s quote to live by: “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” -Cornel West

Read Rabbi Barbara's Reflections

Find A Rabbi, Create A Community Reflections by Rabbi Barbara Penzner on 28 years of leadership at Temple Hillel B’nai Torah