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Congregation Kona Beth Shalom (KBS) serves the west or Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. Although the largest island in the Hawaiian chain, the island of Hawaii has a total population of only 120,000, with about 40,000 living on the Kona side. Kona has about 400 Jews with 45 families as members of our congregation.

 We hold services, which we call A Shaloha Shabbos, at the Aston Keauhou Beach Resort on the last Friday evening and Saturday morning of each month. Friday evening's service is followed by a pot-luck meal, and the telling of mieses and vitzes. In addition our Board of Directors, opinions not lacking, meet once a month. We also celebrate most of the Jewish holidays. We had over 100 members and guests in attendance at our last hotel catered Seder.

 The woman’s branch of KBS is called the WaKoBeS, standing for Wahines of Kona Beth Shalom (Wahines is Hawaiian for women), with Karen Breier as President, and has about 25 members. There is, would you believe, a Shaloha Cookbook, Food for the Soul, put out by Kona Beth Shalom. We also have hopes for a building of our own and have raised $50,000 for realizing that dream.

 We are unaffiliated and our membership is very eclectic. Most of us have come here to escape the more formal aspects of mainland big city life. We use The Gates of Prayer, a reform text, as our Siddur, but have also used the Art Scroll Siddur. Dr. Blum leads many of our Shabbos services, along with others. We encourage any member to try his or her hand at leading us. A few of our congregation are fluent in Hebrew and, for Saturday services, read from our congregation’s old Czechoslovakian Torah Scroll, rescued from the Holocaust.

 Through a selection committee and a series of inquiries and correspondence, we choose and invite a mainland Rabbi to conduct services during the High Holy Days. We pay a lump sum of around $5,000 to cover expenses and fees. We also promote Jewish speakers, to address our community in a series that we call Varieties of Jewish Experience. For these occasions we have paid a small honorarium and sometimes for inter-island airfare. Speakers have included a Jewish story teller, a Biblio-Drama facilitator, the Israeli Consul, and various Rabbis, Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative and Orthodox. We have found that our beautiful island and our unique shaloha spirit are often great attractions to those that might contribute their wisdom to our community.

 If you contemplate vacationing in Hawaii, or if you think you might fit our needs for a High Holy Day Rabbi, or if, being in Hawaii, you think you might have interesting things to say to our community, please don’t hesitate to call me, Morty Breier: (808) 325-0944, morty@aloha.net, www.aloha.net/~morty or Dr. Barry Blum: (808) 322-6004, goliard@aloha.net.