synagogue spotlight
What’s happening at ... Congregation Brothers of Israel
Congregation Brothers of Israel
Welcoming to All
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
P eople have different reasons for
joining Congregation Brothers
of Israel, but ultimately they
have the same reason.

The congregants at the Conservative
synagogue in Newtown are warm and
welcoming almost the minute you walk
in the door. It doesn’t matter if they’ve
never seen you before.

Many have experienced this, though
no can quite say when or how it started.

Joan Hersch, the synagogue’s educa-
tion director and the wife of its rabbi
emeritus, said it was present even when
she joined as a single mother 44 years
ago. No one minded that she was a
single mother.

This culture is just a feature of a
140-year-old institution that still
counts 142 families in its congregation.

“We like to have people become part
of our family,” Hersch said.

Such stories, ones like Hersch’s,
abound among CBOI members.

Rabbi Aaron Gaber joined the com-
munity eight years ago and, during his
interview/weekend visit, his daughter
got sick. Brothers of Israel members
kept asking how they could help.

Congregant Amy Deutsch, who joined
14 years ago, is a convert to Judaism
who often brings her non-Jewish family
members for services. Her fellow congre-
gants are always friendly to her family
members and willing to direct them to
the right page in the prayer book.

CBOI administrator Sharon Segarra
learned about the community 25 years
ago when she attended the consecra-
tion of her friend’s son. At that event,
Hersch approached her and started
talking to her. The education director
told Segarra a story about a bar mitz-
vah for a child who had special needs;
Segarra’s son is on the spectrum. She,
like so many others, decided to join.

That spirit is alive and well in the
Newtown congregation, members say.

During the pandemic, CBOI gained a
handful of new families.

Hersch credits the continuation of this
32 positive energy to Gaber. When he took
over in 2014, the rabbi was inheriting a
long legacy. He also had a rabbi emeritus,
Howard Hersch, Joan’s husband, who
was still in the building after leading the
congregation from 1960 to 2007.

It wasn’t an easy position to step into,
but to his credit, the new rabbi did not
change anything. He only added.

In other words, Gaber maintained
CBOI’s culture while expanding its
offerings. He started new adult edu-
cation classes; he continued and nor-
malized the Conservative synagogue’s
transition toward allowing women
onto the bimah; and he got the syna-
gogue more involved in social action
efforts in the wider community.

Once the pandemic broke out, the
rabbi moved CBOI programming
online. More than two years later, the
Newtown synagogue, like many syna-
gogues, offers a wide variety of hybrid
programming. “Over the last eight years, we’ve done
really well together,” Gaber said. “We’re
growing together.”
In 2021, CBOI adopted a new mis-
sion statement.

“CBOI is an egalitarian community
of caring and diverse people, who strive
to be connected to our faith, families
and larger community. We are a grow-
ing, evolving and inclusive congrega-
tion, enjoying and enriching Jewish life
together,” it reads.

To live up to that mission statement,
synagogue members spent the past year
listening to community groups and
organizations in Bucks County. They
wanted to figure out how they could
better help the community, and they
settled on two core focus areas: food
insecurity and inequity in education.

Recently, congregants packed boxes
of food at the Jewish Relief Agency
and then delivered them to homes.

They also collected children’s books
and donated them to a Cherry Hill,
New Jersey-based nonprofit called
BookSmiles, which distributes books
to schools. Gaber said the latter effort
would be an ongoing partnership.

“And the kids really love doing
APRIL 28, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Congregation Brothers of Israel in Newtown
Photo by Sharon Segarra
The Purim carnival at Congregation Brothers of Israel in Newtown
Photo by Sharon Segarra
that,” said Roz Zucker, the synagogue’s
co-president. “Giving gently used
books to children who wouldn’t have
them otherwise.”
As it moves forward, though,
Brothers of Israel faces the same exis-
tential question that all synagogues
face today: Why do people need a
synagogue? Gaber and his congregants
don’t have the answer.

But with their welcoming culture at
the core of everything they do, they
feel confident in their ability to figure it
out, they say. Plus, the longtime mem-
bers are not going anywhere.

Congregation Brothers of Israel is
their home.

Segarra, Hersch and Zucker all moved
with the community from Trenton,
New Jersey, to Newtown in 2007. And
they would move with it again if they
had to, they say.

“It’s not a building. Brothers of Israel
is truly a community,” Hersch said.

“It’s the people and the idea of Jewish
life that keeps me.” JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com