About us
A warm, intimate congregation in the heart of Houston
Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism has been a spiritual home since 1957. We are small enough that people learn your name and full enough to hold a whole Jewish life: worship, learning, friendship, and the work of repairing the world.
1957
The year HCRJ was founded. We are marking our seventieth year through 2027.
Reform
A member congregation of the Union for Reform Judaism.
Fridays, 6:30 pm
Erev Shabbat service every week, open to everyone.
801 Bering Drive
Our home in west Houston. Parking is free and on site.
Our story
Seventy years of Jewish life in Houston
HCRJ began in 1956 with a small group of families who wanted a Reform congregation of their own in west Houston. Seven decades later we are still recognizably that congregation: serious about Judaism, unpretentious about ourselves, and glad to see a new face at the door.
Being intimate is a deliberate choice, not an accident of size. It is why the rabbi greets people by name on a Friday night, why a first time visitor gets invited to the oneg rather than pointed toward it, and why a family in trouble is noticed within the week.
Rabbi Steve Gross has led the congregation since 2005, often with a guitar in hand, and has spent those years building relationships across Houston’s faith communities as well as inside our own.
What we believe
Serious about Judaism, honest about the questions
The questions newcomers ask us most often, answered plainly.
How observant is HCRJ?
We are a Reform congregation. Services are led in Hebrew and English, our prayer books carry translation and transliteration on every page, and the music is a real part of the experience. Come as you are: most people arrive in ordinary clothes and nobody is counting.
What does Reform Judaism mean here?
That Jewish tradition is a living conversation rather than a fixed set of instructions. We take it seriously, we argue with it honestly, and we expect every member to make informed choices about their own practice.
Do I have to be Jewish to come?
No. Worship, learning, and most community events are open to anyone who wants to be here, member or not, Jewish or not.
What do you actually do all week?
Shabbat services on Friday evening, religious school on Sunday morning, adult learning, social action, and a calendar of groups and gatherings that runs most days of the week.
Who we welcome
You are welcome here.
We are a Reform congregation that reads Torah in the world we actually live in. We ask questions out loud, and we would always rather you show up with doubts than not show up at all.
Partners of other faiths are part of this community, not guests in it.
In leadership, on the bimah (the pulpit), and at every life cycle moment.
Our prayer books have translation and transliteration on every page.
Worship, learning, and most gatherings are open to anyone who wants to be here.
Our clergy
Meet Rabbi Steve Gross
Rabbi Steve Gross
Rabbi, serving HCRJ since 2005
Rabbi Gross was ordained in 1996 at Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, where he also earned a Masters of Hebrew Letters. He has served the Houston Jewish community ever since, and he brings a guitar to the bimah as often as not, which shapes worship here for children and grandparents alike.
He treats every religious act as a chance to build community, and he has given much of his rabbinate to building trust between faith communities across Houston: as a founding member of T.R.U.T.H., through the Anti-Defamation League’s Coalition for Mutual Respect, with Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston, and at the Jerusalem Peacebuilders peace camp.
Read Rabbi Gross’s full biographyStaff and lay leadership
The people who keep this place running
Our small staff works alongside a volunteer Board of Trustees elected by the membership.
Beth Nelson
Executive Director
Beth came to HCRJ in 2023 with more than thirty years in Jewish communal life, in camps, schools, JCCs and congregations, working with every age from preschool to senior adults.
Mike Kahn
Membership and Engagement Director
A Houston native and a long time HCRJ member, Mike joined the staff in 2024 after ten years as our cantorial soloist, a role he still fills. He is the person to talk to about joining.
Email Mike
Betti Buck
Religious School Director
Betti has led our religious school since 2021. Originally from Israel, she builds a hands on, dynamic classroom where Jewish learning is something students do rather than sit through.
About the schoolPhotos
Life at HCRJ this year
Real photographs of real people here, refreshed every season.
Come see for yourself.
The simplest way to know whether HCRJ is right for you is to walk in on a Friday night. No ticket, no membership, no need to tell anyone you are coming.