At Temple Beth Hillel's regular Friday night family services on Feb. 1, Scouters (adult leaders), Scouts and their families joined together to welcome Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath.

Rabbi James Lee Kaufman and Cantor Alan Weiner led the services with the assistance of the youth choir and Scouts.

The synagogue is located in Valley Village.

Temple Beth Hillel, the oldest Reform synagogue in the Eastern San Fernando Valley, sponsors two units of the Western Los Angeles County Council, Boy Scouts of America - Cub Scout Pack 311, for boys 6-10, and Boy Scout Troop 36, for boys 11-17.

As the synagogue is a center of Jewish Life, so is Temple Beth Hillel a center of Jewish Scouting, hosting annual Scout Shabbat services, religious emblem workshops, even non-Saturday Merit Badge Midways to accommodate the needs and interests of the Jewish Scouting Community throughout Southern California.

Never forgetting or understating the important Reform Jewish values of inclusiveness and diversity, Temple Beth Hillel uses Scouting for its youth development purposes to teach Reform Jewish values and ethics.

Two young men - one a Webelos Scout of Pack 311 and the other, an alumnus of Pack 311 and now an Eagle Scout with a nearby troop - presented a reading specially written for the service.

Their reading explained in part why Temple Beth Hillel uses Scouting as a part of its youth programming - to build character.

Many Scouts having earned their Jewish Religious Emblems received them during the service. Three registered adult leaders in Troop 36 ( Lynda and Jerry Curland of Valley Village and Scoutmaster Larry Turner of Studio City) were each presented the Shofar Award of the National Jewish Committee on Scouting for outstanding service to Jewish youth in the program of the Boy Scouts of America

Temple Beth Hillel Chartered Organization Representative David I. Karp of Sherman Oaks, on behalf of the Council and National Jewish Committees on Scouting, presented the religious emblems and Shofar Awards.

Max Goldberg of Studio City, Cahuenga District's Chairman, assisted.

Scouts and Scouters from many scout districts and councils attended.

Also present was Derek Fortin, director of support services for Western Los Angeles County Council, evidencing the highest levels of Council support for Jewish Scouting.

Himself a Shofar Award recipient although he is not Jewish, Fortin has been instrumental in including important Jewish festivals and holidays in the Council's calendar, in supporting and promoting an Ordeal that accommodates religious Jewish candidates for the Order of the Arrow during the Council's Jewish Religious Retreat (Kinnus), and in other ways addressing Jewish Scouting needs in the Council.

Many families of the attending Jewish Scouts also co-sponsored the OnegShabbat (refreshments and dessert) after the service.