synagogue spotlight
What’s happening at ... Or Zarua
Or Zarua a Spiritual Home for Boomers
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
F or baby boomers whose kids are
older now, synagogue is less of
a necessity. They do not need a
preschool, a religious school and a path
to a bar or bat mitzvah.

Instead, synagogue is now more of a
choice, and it’s a choice that comes down
to a simple question: How important is
it for you to reinforce and deepen your
Jewish values on a daily basis?
For the 80 or so families at Or Zarua,
a Reconstructionist community on the
Main Line, the answer is very.

Most of the members are both boom-
ers and empty-nesters, according to
Or Zarua Rabbi Shelly Barnathan.

They are only a part of the community
because they want to practice Judaism.

The synagogue doesn’t even have
a building. Barnathan and the con-
gregation hold services and events in
people’s living rooms and at the Old
Haverford Friends Meetinghouse, the
home of a local Quaker community.

Member Ethan Fogel calls Or Zarua
a “co-constructed community.”
What brings Or Zarua members
together is a shared set of values. The
Main Line residents are committed
to tikkun olam, or healing the world,
and a progressive, adaptive approach
to Judaism for the modern world. They
also want to have a say in the syna-
gogue’s operations, as many felt mar-
ginalized in their previous temples,
which were more hierarchical.

But perhaps more than anything,
the congregants believe in appreciating
each other, they say.

Or Zarua means “light is sown.”
“We’re all coming from our own
authentic place, where our light is,”
Barnathan said. “What piece of the
divine is true in us in an authentic way
that we want to share?”
According to congregant Michael
Grossman, Barnathan is often ask-
ing people the question, “What’s your
superpower?” It sounds like an ideal-
istic question designed to inspire, but
really it’s more practical.

The rabbi, explained Grossman, is
looking for people to lead synagogue
programs. A congregant who was the poet
laureate of Montgomery County con-
ducts a poetry program once a month.

Grossman himself loves cooking, so
he coordinates Or Zarua’s community
outreach efforts that involve food.

Barnathan does not even run her
own synagogue’s Torah study class.

She lets a congregant, who happens to
be an expert on the subject, lead that.

The rabbi is, however, one of his most
passionate students.

“I just love that I get to be a partici-
pant,” Barnathan said.

The rabbi started playing that role
five years ago when she went on more
than 100 coffee dates with the people
who would become her congregants.

Barnathan had just completed rab-
binical school after leaving a 32-year
career as a language arts teacher. She
wanted to realize a childhood dream
that wasn’t accessible to her in her
Orthodox community. But she also
wanted to connect more deeply with
her Jewish spirituality, a desire she
recognized in her boomer friends, too.

“I realized that people in our baby
boomer, empty nester cohort had par-
ticular needs,” she said.

But their incumbent synagogues
were not meeting them.

Some felt marginalized even though
they were paying the dues that kept
the temple operating. Others were
disillusioned at the unwillingness of
Conservative leaders to embrace mod-
ern practices like intermarriage. All of
them desired a place where they could
practice Judaism according to their
values. Barnathan, a Reconstructionist
rabbi, applied for and received a
grant of $2,000 from Reconstructing
Judaism, “the central organization
of the Reconstructionist movement,”
according to its website. Then she got
another grant, this one worth $20,000,
which stabilized the community in its
early days.

Over the next five years, Or Zarua
grew from about 45 families to 80. Even
during the pandemic, when it went
fully remote, it gained 10 new member
families, Barnathan said.

Today, the synagogue uses a formal
structure for paying annual dues. But
Or Zarua congregants gather in a member’s home pre-pandemic.

Or Zarua members get together for an outdoor event. 
besides that and Barnathan’s status
as senior rabbi, nothing else about Or
Zarua is that hierarchical.

The rabbi tries her best to poll the
entire congregation on big decisions.

She also makes a concerted effort to
reach out to all members regularly. That
way, when a synagogue issue arises in a
specific area, she may just call someone
likely to understand it.

“I put a lot of energy into reaching
out to people,” she said.

About 20-30 people attend Or Zarua’s
Photos by Elliot Barnathan
Shabbat services on Friday nights and
Saturday mornings. More than 60 peo-
ple typically come to bigger events. But
all are still on Zoom due to COVID.

The next step, according to members,
is to figure out how and when to return
to in-person community life.

“It’s limited when we’re just on
Zoom,” said congregant Sari Fogel,
Ethan’s wife. “It’s much richer when
we’re in the space together.” JE
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