Shabbat and shuls in Givat Shmuel

Givat Shmuel is a mostly national-religious city, and the religious council lists about 40 synagogues, with address, nusach and gabbai phones. AllAboutAliyah, a secondary guide, puts it at 30+ and says English speakers are spread across many of them. Here is what I could confirm, and what I could not.

Candle lighting

The religious council's site publishes daily zmanim but no candle-lighting time or custom, and I found no main shul's published timetable. So the Shabbat page shows Hebcal's standard time for Givat Shmuel, 20 minutes before sunset. If your shul publishes its own time, follow your shul.

Which shuls are English-speaking?

I could not confirm any shul as English-speaking. What I can say:

• Anglo-friendly, according to secondary guides (AllAboutAliyah, HereNextYearIsrael, NBN): Shirat Aharon (46 Bialik St, Ashkenazi, Nusach Sefard), the Lechu Neranena Carlebach minyan (Begin corner of Landau) and Naot Tehila (1 HaRimon St). None of these shuls says so itself in anything I found.
• JLIC Mizrachi, the English-speaking community for students and young professionals, holds its Friday-night minyan at 80 HaZeitim St (the Moreshet Neria school gym), with Shabbat morning tefillah followed by a weekly kiddush and shiur. Members host meals, and JLIC says a committee makes sure nobody is left without one. This is from JLIC's 2024-25 welcome packet, so the location may change by year.
• The council list includes Kehilat HaOlim, an olim community minyan at the Yigal Alon school sports field, and Kehilat HaTzeirim, a young adults' Ashkenazi community at the mechina on Jabotinsky St.

If you daven at one of these and know the language and minyan times, please tell me with the email button on the About page.

The wider mix

The council list spans Sephardi shuls (several on HaNasi and Pardes Rosenblum Sts), Ashkenaz shuls, Moroccan, Tunisian-Libyan and Yemenite (Shami-Baladi) minyanim, a Chabad shul (Tiferet Yisrael, 5 Sderot HaGiborim) and the Carlebach minyan. All of them are in the shuls section of the directory.

Beit Midrash Givat Shmuel (Uzi Hitman St), founded in 5768, has about 50 avrechim under Rav David Turner and Rav Tzvi Levenberg and is open to residents for shiurim, chavrutot and a morning kollel. Hebrew Wikipedia describes a community beit midrash with dozens of daily minyanim.

Learning in English

• JLIC and Bar-Ilan run an English Beit Midrash Program, with classes students can take for Judaics credit. JLIC also runs a Sunday English shiur, Torah Tuesdays and a women's chabura.
• Bar-Ilan's Midrasha for women has evening batei midrash open to all students and a campus beit knesset.

Mikvaot

The religious council runs three women's mikvaot: Agnon (4 Simtat Shai Agnon), Nimrover (2 Nimrover St) and Simcha Holtzberg (3 Holtzberg St). There is a men's mikveh at Holtzberg 3 (daily 05:00-11:30) and keilim mikvaot at Holtzberg 5 and Nimrover 2 (daily until 16:00). When Home Front Command rules require staying near a protected space, the council says only the Holtzberg women's mikveh opens, because it has a mamad.

The eruv

The religious council has an eruv department, with pages on the eruv and on walking routes to nearby cities. The eruv map link on its site returned an error when I checked on 5 October 2026, and I found no weekly status line. Ask your shul, and I will add the map once it is back.

Motzei Shabbat and emergencies

• Super-Pharm (23 Sderot Begin) opens 20:00-23:00; Cafe Cafe in Kanyon HaGiva reopens 1.5 hours after Shabbat.
• Terem Bnei Brak is open 24/7 and Terem Petah Tikva on Shabbat 09:00-23:30.

The rabbinate

The council lists Rav Eliezer Simcha Weiss as acting city rabbi (also acting rabbi of Bnei Brak and a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council). The council, at 34 HaRambam St (03-5321211), also handles marriage registration and posts chag notices such as shofar blowing, hakafot shniyot and chametz sale times.