Well, you don't get to write a review of a shul too often, but I am a big fan and a member at Beth…read moreIsrael Center. Yes, they are on the conservative side of Conservative Judaism, and to fully participate, you need a working knowledge of liturgical Hebrew and traditional Jewish practice. However, they are extremely welcoming, and are just happy to have you participate, whatever your experience. Plus you learn a lot just by showing up. If you want to go to a synagogue where people really believe in what they are doing and do it with spirit and enthusiasm, this is your place. Plus they have something going on almost every day of the week.

The wife and I went to Beth Israel Center for the Kol Nidre service in Fall 2012. We had an invite…read morefrom friends, so took them up on the offer. Appearance: The synagogue is starting to look a little rundown, but we found out that they're in the middle of a $5,000,000 capital campaign to renovate the place. The preliminary drawings look GORGEOUS. Service: The wife grew up Conservative but has gone more Reform with time, and I grew up Reform and have gone less religious with time, so going to a Conservative service took us back more than few years to when we were much younger. I'd estimate that about 90% of the service was done in Hebrew, and the average age of the congregation was probably between 50 and 60. There were kids of a variety of ages, which was good to see, but they were not in the chapel portion of the building for most of the service (probably better for Kol Nidre, anyway). Anyway, the wife and I will most likely not go back -- not because of anything that Beth Israel Center did wrong, but because we really don't feel comfortable in Conservative services anymore.

Having recently moved to the area I was looking for a synagogue. This is the most inviting…read moresynagogue I have ever attended! There are wonderful programs for all ages and a great religious school!

When I recently spoke to Rabbi Rothman of the Chabad Jewish Center of the Rockford, IL, Region on…read morethe phone, he asked me dozens of questions about myself, but refused to answer any questions I put to him about himself. I had called him to donate some Jewish books to his center. He said he'd be glad to have them but that he'd only be willing to take them (a) if he could pick them up at the reception area of my hotel and (b) if I was not there when he arrived. I thought this was absolutely insane. He was, for no apparent reason, refusing to meet with me or to let me visit his center. In fact, he didn't seem to even have a center (despite his claim on the internet that he has one at 3661 Grenoble Ct, Rockford, IL, and that many activities occur there), for he said there were no Shabbos services taking place there and he wouldn't give out any information about other activities at his synagogue. In all likelihood, "Rabbi" Rothman of Rockford, IL is probably just a fraud pretending to run a center--after all, if he is running one, why can't a Jew visit it? I do not know why he would want to engage in this scam--perhaps he's fraudulently using his nonexistent "Jewish Community Center" website to get donations out of the Chabad organization or other Jews. I don't know this for a fact, however. I'd like to know more about Rabbi Rothman's center, but you won't get anything about it out of Rabbi Rothman himself--with him, everything is a big secret, including where he's from and what his Jewish activities are.