Rabbi Steven Henkin, the spiritual leader at Temple Beth-El in Birmingham, will be installed in formal ceremonies Saturday, Jan. 13.

“It’s a celebration of the relationship we have started to develop and hope to continue nurturing for many years to come,” Henkin said.

The Shabbat services tonight and Saturday will also be part of a weekend of installation observances.

“We’re glad we’re going to be celebrating together as a community,” Henkin said.

“We love the people. It’s an amazing community. There’s a lot of warm, loving, caring people, who care deeply about Jewish life and creating a strong Jewish community in Birmingham.”

During Henkin’s tenure, Temple Beth-El has unveiled a program to highlight the Jewish role in the civil rights movement with workshops and tours.

“It’s very much about telling our story and sharing our story,” Henkin said. “This is an integral part of both the Jewish community and Birmingham’s story.”

The effort to create a civil rights program at Temple Beth-El began before Henkin arrived in July 2022, but he has embraced it.

“It’s an important story to tell,” Henkin said.

“The Jewish community in Birmingham did some good things and some things that in retrospect we’re less proud of. But it’s important to understand the history. The people who were involved, why were they involved? What were the Jewish values that they were instilling? For those who didn’t, why did they not? What were the reasons they made their choices? What were they going through? It’s very easy in hindsight to go back and criticize people, but you start to think about and hear why those who were here did what they did, and you get a very different perspective.”

Civil rights tours at Temple Beth-El began in 2023.

“People who have taken the tours have been blown away by how wonderful it was and how much they learned,” Henkin said. “We plan to continue expanding it.”

Temple Beth-El was established in Birmingham in 1907 and moved to its current location at 2179 Highland Ave. South in 1926.

In 2022, a historic marker was installed outside the temple to memorialize the attempted bombing in 1958.

On April 28, 1958, 54 sticks of dynamite were set outside the temple, but did not explode. Although the case was never solved, it’s believed the planned bombing was an act of retaliation for Jewish involvement in the civil rights movement.

The effort to highlight civil rights history includes plans for a midrash, or study center. “That will have a civil rights component connected with it, where people who want to continue studying or learn more can do research,” Henkin said. “People who are doing research into civil rights can come to our synagogue to research and look at our resources and archival documents.”

As the installation ceremonies take place this weekend, the Jewish community in Birmingham remains concerned about world events including the war in Israel.

“We in Birmingham are looking around at what’s going on,” Henkin said. “There’s a lot of anxiety. There’s a lot of stress. There’s a lot of concern.”

“As a rabbi, part of my job is to address those anxieties and address those concerns and help people cope,” Henkin said. “But part of my job as a rabbi is also to be out in public and to educate our community about why Israel is important, what Israel means to us as a community … and why we need the larger community’s support during this difficult time.”