Who We Are: Mission, Values, & Story

Our Mission

At Congregation B’nai Tikvah, we believe that a kind and vibrant Jewish community deepens and restores our sense of purpose and connection to the world.

We are dedicated to learning, music-infused prayer, personal relationships and a commitment to social justice, and welcome all who are looking to explore the many innovative paths to meaning that Judaism has to offer.

— CBT’s Mission

Our Values

Tikkun Olam

Racial Justice
Social Action

Engaging the Next Generation

Embracing Community

Israel

LGBTQ+

Interfaith

Congregation B’nai Tikvah is defined by our commitment to being a  home to all who come through our doors. The founders of our community were inspired to create a synagogue that honors the dignity of every human being, and that strives to be radically welcoming in every generation.  Today, we commit to weaving diversity, equity and inclusion work into the fabric of our entire community, with the hope of transforming CBT into a synagogue that centers the voices and identities of all people. We are a compassionate community that believes that each of us is made B’tselem Elohim, in the image of the Divine.  

CBT’s Guiding Principles on
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

<h4 style="color:white;"> Tikkun Olam </h4> Racial Justice <br> Social Action

Tikkun Olam

Racial Justice
Social Action
<h4 style="color:white;"> Engaging the Next Generation

Engaging the Next Generation

<h4 style="color:white;"> Embracing Community

Embracing Community

<h4 style="color:white;">Israel

Israel

<h4 style="color:white;"> LGBTQ+

LGBTQ+

<h4 style="color:white;"> Interfaith

Interfaith

Tikkun Olam

Racial Justice
Social Action

Engaging the Next Generation

Embracing Community

Tikkun Olam

Racial Justice
Social Action

Engaging the Next Generation

Embracing Community

Our Story

Our Story

Dr. Marc Usatin, Founder

It started off innocuously enough. Debbie and I had just moved out to Walnut Creek from San Francisco where we had been happily ensconced in Temple Emanu-el. After my Orthodox/Conservative upbringing and subsequent alienation from Judaism, finding Reform Judaism saved my spiritual life. Rabbi Joseph Asher, then the Senior Rabbi at Emanu-el, introduced us to a whole new world. When we moved to Walnut Creek we were lost. None of the synagogues in the area met our needs. Acting on the sage advice of Rabbis Avi Magid and Maury Hirschman, I decided to start a congregation in our new East Bay community.

Meetings and services were held in my empty living room. We met and brainstormed names for our synagogue and we chose B’nai Tikvah, People of Hope. Ads were placed in the paper for our new synagogue, and I asked unaffiliated doctors, nurses, etc. at Kaiser to join. If I ran into a Jewish patient I’d somehow slip into the conversation, if appropriate, that we had a great new synagogue in town. Congregation B’nai Tikvah became known by some as Congregation B’nai Kaiser.

CBT’s Founding Families

By early 1981, it was clear that if we were to be taken seriously by the community we would need to find a rabbi, offer High Holiday Services, and start a religious school. When I called Joseph Asher, he informed me that his son had just decided to pursue a pulpit and might be interested in our position. We met with Rabbi Raphael Asher and offered him $1,000 to be our part-time rabbi through High Holidays in September of 1981. To say the least, that turned out to be a shrewd investment. We reached out to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and found Aviva Katzman, who became our first cantorial soloist. We borrowed books from Temple Isaiah and 300 people worshipped at our free Rosh Hashanah services, held at the Jewish Community Center on Creekside Drive.

In the meantime, we found teachers for the new school and recruited a large group of students to attend. Even when planned classroom space fell through at the last minute, a community member from another congregation was there to lend us rooms we could use. Thanks to the commitment and generosity of the community, it all came together.

Congregation B’nai Tikvah has been blessed since its inception in 1981 by the fact that the right people with great ideas and energy stepped up when the need arose. We have somehow remained the small friendly synagogue in Walnut Creek interested in creating a community for all people, young and old, single and married, Jews by chance and Jews by choice, the entire fabric of K’lal Yisrael.

Congregation B’nai Tikvah is here to stay. Our youth have gone on to become cantors, to attend Rabbinical School, to become religious school teachers and youth group advisors. They have become b’nai mitzvah, gotten married, and sadly had funerals in our sanctuary. Our dream has become a reality and with all of your help it has been one of the greatest accomplishments of my life.

Dr. Marc Usatin, Founder

It started off innocuously enough. Debbie and I had just moved out to Walnut Creek from San Francisco where we had been happily ensconced in Temple Emanu-el. After my Orthodox/Conservative upbringing and subsequent alienation from Judaism, finding Reform Judaism saved my spiritual life. Rabbi Joseph Asher, then the Senior Rabbi at Emanu-el, introduced us to a whole new world. When we moved to Walnut Creek we were lost. None of the synagogues in the area met our needs. Acting on the sage advice of Rabbis Avi Magid and Maury Hirschman, I decided to start a congregation in our new East Bay community.

Meetings and services were held in my empty living room. We met and brainstormed names for our synagogue and we chose B’nai Tikvah, People of Hope. Ads were placed in the paper for our new synagogue, and I asked unaffiliated doctors, nurses, etc. at Kaiser to join. If I ran into a Jewish patient I’d somehow slip into the conversation, if appropriate, that we had a great new synagogue in town. Congregation B’nai Tikvah became known by some as Congregation B’nai Kaiser.

By early 1981, it was clear that if we were to be taken seriously by the community we would need to find a rabbi, offer High Holiday Services, and start a religious school. When I called Joseph Asher, he informed me that his son had just decided to pursue a pulpit and might be interested in our position. We met with Rabbi Raphael Asher and offered him $1,000 to be our part-time rabbi through High Holidays in September of 1981. To say the least, that turned out to be a shrewd investment. We reached out to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and found Aviva Katzman, who became our first cantorial soloist. We borrowed books from Temple Isaiah and 300 people worshipped at our free Rosh Hashanah services, held at the Jewish Community Center on Creekside Drive.

In the meantime, we found teachers for the new school and recruited a large group of students to attend. Even when planned classroom space fell through at the last minute, a community member from another congregation was there to lend us rooms we could use. Thanks to the commitment and generosity of the community, it all came together.

Congregation B’nai Tikvah has been blessed since its inception in 1981 by the fact that the right people with great ideas and energy stepped up when the need arose. We have somehow remained the small friendly synagogue in Walnut Creek interested in creating a community for all people, young and old, single and married, Jews by chance and Jews by choice, the entire fabric of K’lal Yisrael.

Congregation B’nai Tikvah is here to stay. Our youth have gone on to become cantors, to attend Rabbinical School, to become religious school teachers and youth group advisors. They have become b’nai mitzvah, gotten married, and sadly had funerals in our sanctuary. Our dream has become a reality and with all of your help it has been one of the greatest accomplishments of my life.

Marc and Debbie Usatin
Marc and Debbie Usatin
CBT's Founding Families
CBT’s Founding Families