Our Vision

We strive to be the friendliest synagogue in the Greater Seattle area. We draw members from all over the Puget Sound region who feel at home with our community. As a growing and vibrant temple, we come from many different backgrounds: interfaith, LGBTQ+, people of color, young families, empty nesters, active teens and seniors, Jews by Choice, and Jews from a variety of different backgrounds, from Sephardic to Ashkenazic, Orthodox to Humanistic and everything in between. We believe that our diversity is our strength and new friends are always welcome.

We believe that Jewish learning is a journey, not a destination. From the very young to the very old, we are all students in a living classroom of spiritual and moral development. Asking difficult questions and sitting together, shoulder-to-shoulder, as we seek the answers is one of the greatest joys of Judaism. We know that study can be both enriching and enjoyable, meaningful while also fun.  

We pride ourselves on our willingness to try new things, experiment and innovate. As Jewish life continues to evolve, our TBT family is constantly thinking of new ways to engage our members, educate our children, pray as a community and socialize as a diverse group of people with a variety of interests. We are always open to new ideas and are not afraid of failure; failure helps us to grow and evolve. We believe that truly engaging and compelling Jewish programs can have wide appeal to all members of our congregation, regardless of their background or life stage.

Judaism is a religion of action, not simply faith.  We believe that we are obligated to be God's partner in creation by doing acts of tikkun olam, or repairing the world. Our mission is to serve the vulnerable, the disenfranchised and the marginalized.  As Jews, we feel a sacred call from both our tradition and our history to help those in need.  We believe that one of the main purposes of religion in our modern era is to make the world more loving, just and equitable and that is our kavana, our guiding intention, with everything that we do. 

TBT has a unique hybrid model that empowers its community members to have meaningful leadership opportunities while also employing a small but talented professional staff to help steward volunteers. We rely on our members' willingness to give of their time, talent and treasure in order to grow and sustain our community while also keeping it fresh and vibrant with new ideas and new energy.  We believe in a culture of invitation and will regularly ask members of our community to teach a program, run a service, mentor one another, and volunteer behind the scenes in the governance or administration of our temple. We believe that each member "owns" a little piece of our temple and, as co-owners, we all have a responsibility to make sure that our community not only survives, but thrives.

In our Torah, we learn that every Israelite was called on by God to make financial contributions in support of the larger community.  Today, that translates into dues and donations to our Temple. In order to provide our TBT family with a spiritual home, we must maintain a physical home--our beautiful synagogue in East Bellevue.  Your financial contributions pay our wonderful staff, provide meaningful programs, and keep the lights on and our doors open. We also believe in fiscal responsibility and thoughtful oversight. Each dollar we receive is seen as a kind of holy offering and, as part of our values-based budgeting, we strive to ensure that we not only spend that money responsibly, but also in service to our prophetic calling.