The Community Free Synagogue

Fort Myers, Florida

11120 Ranchette road  (The Unity Campus)

synfree@comcast.net (239) 247-4556    mailing address: 7210 Falcon Crest, Fort Myers FL 33908

email:  synfree@comcast.net

 

           Meeting Room ID  527 117 7864  passcode 435419  

 

 

Weekly Sabbath Eve Dinners 6:00 PM at the synagogue. All are welcome.

Worship follows at 7:00 PM

Weekly Sabbath morning Torah Study with the Rabbi continues on Zoom 9:30-11:00 AM

 

About our Synagogue

 

The Community Free Synagogue was founded in 2005 as an "intentional community."  That intention was to create a stable new form of synagogue free of the usual forces that often stress our congregations.

C.F.S. is a community not-for-profit "open resource" available to all that is comfortably supported by donations and volunteers (including the Rabbi) based on the axiom that, as a rule, people will act the way they are treated. Many respond to our generosity with theirs.

While we have the officers and by-laws required for not-for-profit incorporation and maintain the strictest financial accountability, we move forward with the Rabbi's leadership and consensus-building among the more engaged participants. Our informality works for us because of our shared values and mutual respect. This enables us to consistently achieve remarkable outcomes efficiently and with minimum "friction".

We are a deeply religious community committed to the traditional Jewish values of "prayer, study and benevolence" as found in Pirqe Avot While our worship and observance trend towards the traditional, our values are progressive and inclusive. All are welcome!

 

Our Rabbi

 

 

Rabbi Bruce Diamond was among the founders of the Community Free Synagogue in 2005 and has led it ever since. A graduate of the Yeshivah of Flatbush, he holds his 1974 Master's Degree, 1978 ordination and subsequent Doctor of Divinities honoris causa from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. He has served our local Jewish community since 1997 and was a visiting scholar for 12 years at Florida Gulf Coast University, where he taught social ethics, critical thinking skills and methods of civic engagement. The Rabbi's wife Melinda is deeply involved in C.F.S. activities.

 

Congregation Ahavat Yisrael in Itonko, Uganda

 

C.F.S. supports its sister synagogue serving the Abuyudayah community in Itonko, Uganada. It has subsidized its income-producing agricultural projects, the reconstruction and electrification of its building as well as emergency medical expenses and tuitions. The Rabbi teaches its spiritual leader Mugoya Oren who was brought to Fort Myers and sent home with a Torah and worship books.