Beth Hallel

Beth Hallel is a Messianic Jewish congregation meeting at the former Shades Mountain Bible Church at 2230 Sumpter Street in Hoover. Rabbi Eric Walker founded the church in 2007 shortly after moving to Birmingham from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It originally met monthly at the Cathedral of the Cross and later moved to Mountain Chapel United Methodist Church and began holding weekly services. They moved to their current building in May 2010.

The congregation worships according to Jewish tradition, celebrates Jewish holidays and studies the Torah, but accepts Jesus Christ as the messiah and promotes salvation by faith. As of 2010, a fourth of the congregation considered themselves Jewish, while the rest had no Jewish background. The church features a stone-clad prayer wall. Walker scans and e-mails prayers that are inserted into the wall to a friend in Jerusalem, who then prints them out and places them in the Wailing Wall.

References

• Garrison, Greg (May 29, 2010) "Birmingham Messianic Jewish congregation buys Shades Mountain Bible Church." Birmingham News