Health, Safety, and Accessibility

Health, Safety, and Accessibility

Welcome to our historic campus. During your visit, please keep the following in mind for the health, safety, comfort, and accessibility of all.  Click to learn more about 

We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, to engage fully. Our services are all wheelchair accessible, and large print prayerbooks and copies of clergy sermons  are available upon request. Closed captions are available for those who join our services via YouTube (click here for instructions). Please note that the YouTube platform’s captions are automatically generated and that they struggle with the musical and Hebrew portions of our services. 

Please let us know if there are other ways in which we can support your full participation

Masking and Covid-19

As has been the case since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have been in close communication with the Oregon Health Authority, other Faith Institutions nationally and locally, and health care professionals in our community.  Following the lead of these authorities, masks are optional–but certainly welcome–for all who join us.

We continue to strongly encourage members of our community, and of the greater Portland community, to be fully vaccinated. 

Hearing Support

Congregation Beth Israel has installed a Telecoil hearing loop system. This system is specifically designed for those with hearing aids to better hear the sound in large rooms, or rooms with a lot of echoes or extra noise, like our Main Sanctuary.

It is designed to work with hearing aids that have a Telecoil (alternatively: T-Coil, T-switch) built into the device. Normal hearing aids pick up sound through a small microphone, and amplify it for increased volume, but a hearing loop system works by sending an audio signal directly to the hearing aid. (Please note that this is not a Bluetooth system, and your hearing aid will not need to be connected to your phone to use Telecoil).

To use the system, your hearing aid must be equipped with telecoil capabilities, and you will need to switch it into telecoil mode. The means of doing so will be slightly different for each unique hearing aid, but if your device has different modes for everyday use, loud ambient noises, etc, telecoil mode will be activated in the same way you switch between those modes.  If you are unsure if your hearing aids are equipped with a telecoil mode, or for assistance in activating it, we recommend you contact your audiologist, who will be able to help.

Over the course of installing this system, which we are using for the first time this year, we have noticed it works better in some areas of our Main Sanctuary than others; if you would like help identifying the most effective area to sit in, please let one of our greeters know.  We may not have the expertise to be able to assist in adjusting the settings if your hearing aids before or during services, so again, we recommend connecting with your audiologist beforehand.

Bags, Purses, and Personal Items 

For the safety and comfort of our community, large backpacks, bags, purses and/or packages ARE NOT ALLOWED  on campus during services.  Please make an effort to leave such items at home. Should you bring them with you, our greeters may request to inspect these items and ask that you secure them elsewhere.

Directions and Parking

Congregation Beth Israel is located at 1972 NW Flanders Street, in the heart of Portland’s alphabet district. As parking in this neighborhood is always difficult, we encourage you to consider carpooling, taking public transportation, or using a rideshare app. 

Given our location in the heart of downtown Portland, parking near CBI is always difficult

We invite you to consider carpooling, using a ride-share service, or to take public transportation.