synagogue spotlight
Congregation Or Ami Remains the
Heart of Jewish Lafayette Hill
Jarrad Saff ren | Staff Writer
Courtesy of Mark Wolfh eimer
Courtesy of Rabbi Glenn Ettman
T he
new sanctuary
at Congregation Or Ami in
Lafayette Hill does not look big.

It’s half of a room, with a sanctuary
on one side, a divider in the middle
and a social hall on the other side. The
individual seats, which replaced the
pews during a renovation last year,
and the lowered stage, which also
was a part of that project, make the
sanctuary look more like a community
meeting room than a worship space.

It’s a more intimate sanctuary befi tting
a synagogue that has lost more than
100 members over the past six years.

But if you look closely, and especially
if you count the chairs, you can see
that Or Ami remains a sizable congre-
gation. The seats add up to almost
200. The membership list still includes
between 200 and 225 families. And
unlike in pre-COVID times, when
that list included people who were
no longer shul regulars, it is fi lled
with residents who walk through the
doors off Ridge Pike and participate in
synagogue life.

Or Ami describes itself on its website
as “the center of Jewish life in the
Lafayette Hill area.” In a recent conver-
sation, Rabbi Glenn Ettman updated
the line.

“We’re the heart of the Jewish
community here in Lafayette Hill,”
he said.

Ettman, 46, arrived at Or Ami in July
2016 with an interim label. But he had
that tag dropped in February 2017 and
has called Lafayette Hill home ever
since. He makes it his mission not so
much to grow the community but to
deepen it. He reaches out to members
on their birthdays and calls them at
least twice a year.

“My goal is to get to know every-
body,” he said.

“All of those things help to keep
people connected,” added Scott Allen,
A fun event at Congregation Or Ami in Lafayette Hill
A Chanukah gathering at Congregation Or Ami
the synagogue’s executive director.

And people are connected.

A group called the Mitzvah Core
helps congregants deal with diffi cult
situations. During Passover, a member
called the synagogue “needing
substantial help getting Passover
food,” Allen said. Within four hours,
another member volunteered to buy
food and deliver it to the woman. It was
delivered the following day.

Once a month, and sometimes
once a week, congregants volunteer
at the Norristown Food Bank. Allen
said younger families in particular
are taking to this activity. And when
someone from Or Ami dies, members
mobilize to help the family set up the
shiva, buy the food and clean up.

“We view our community as a family,”
Rabbi Ettman said.

That must be part of the reason why
young families are joining. Or Ami’s
Early Childhood Education Center
enrollment is 93 kids. Its religious
school student body consists of 86
children and teenagers.

Allison Russell, 36, joined four
years ago with her husband and
young daughter because she wanted
to send her daughter to a Jewish
preschool. The family lived in neigh-
boring Conshohocken, so Or Ami was
the closest option. Russell met with
Michelle Ruder, the director of the ECE
Center, and “felt right at home,” she
said. The feeling hasn’t gone away.

Russell’s older daughter is now in
kindergarten and her younger one is
in nursery school.

“They both love going into the build-
ing,” she said.

Jessica Roomberg, 35, grew up at Or
Ami and attended preschool and had
a bat mitzvah. She rejoined with her
family in 2017 because she had heard
from friends with older kids that the
shul still had a great ECE Center.

“As a parent, you want your kids to
feel taken care of and safe and loved.

I’ve defi nitely felt that,” she said.

The Roombergs have two kids, son
Liam and daughter Meadow, in school
at Or Ami. But their oldest, a daughter
named Mila, died in 2019 due to a rare
vascular manifestation of a genetic
disorder, Neurofibromatosis Type
1. Every year on Mila’s yahrzeit, the
family attends a service at Or Ami, and
Ettman tries to include something in
honor of her, like a song. Mila’s Magical
Garden now sits by the playground
in the backyard of the synagogue’s
property. Children use it to learn
about nature.

Roomberg “wasn’t much of a believer
in God” after her daughter died. Today,
“God and I are working on things,”
she said. She questions, but she tries
to keep the faith. Her faith in the
synagogue, though, is unwavering.

“The community was there as
much as they could be. It did feel
like a safe place,” Roomberg said.

“The rabbi always keeps Mila in mind.

He defi nitely keeps the congregants’
needs in mind.” ■
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
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