synagogue spotlight
What’s happening at ... Congregation Hesed Shel Emet
Congregation Hesed Shel Emet in
Pottstown Hires New Rabbi
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
S he was a rabbi on a “sabbatical
of indeterminate length,” as she
described it; and they were older
synagogue members who had sold their
building and considered disbanding.

But now, Rabbi Cynthia Kravitz’s
“sabbatical” is over; and Congregation
Hesed Shel Emet members are stay-
ing together and keeping their temple
open. Kravitz, 69, is stepping up to lead
the Pottstown shul and its 40 families
on part-time pay.

The Lafayette Hill resident will help
maintain a congregation that dates to
1892. Most of the 40 families are older
and have been congregants for many
years, according to Larry Cohen, the
synagogue’s president. But, as Cohen
put it, “There’s not a year that goes by
that we don’t lose a couple members.”
“It’s mostly due to the fact that peo-
ple are aging,” he added.

Kravitz began her tenure on Aug.

1. It is her sixth synagogue position
in a career that started even before
her ordination at the Reconstructionist
Rabbinical College in 1983.

She served Society Hill Synagogue
in Philadelphia while still a rabbin-
ical student. Then she worked at
the Germantown Jewish Centre,
Congregation Or Ami in Lafayette
Hill, Kesher Israel Congregation in
West Chester and Temple Har Zion in
Mount Holly, New Jersey. Kravitz spent
22 years at Kesher Israel from 1997-
2019 before guiding Har Zion through
the difficult pandemic days of 2020.

After that tiring year, the rabbi
began her “sabbatical of indeterminate
length” in January of 2021. Kravitz
had spent four decades working to
enhance Jewish education and leading
congregations from the pulpit in the
Philadelphia area. She was also part
of the first generation of female rabbis
in the United States following Sally
Priesand’s ordination in 1972.

It was a career she was proud of and,
with the pandemic still raging, a future
she was uncertain about when she con-
28 Rabbi Cynthia Kravitz
Courtesy of Rabbi Cynthia Kravitz
Congregation Hesed Shel Emet has gathered at its building on Keim Street since
1962. 
Courtesy of Larry Cohen
“My plan is to get people to interact with each other as
much as possible. In person and on Zoom. Then you let
people take it from there.”
RABBI CYNTHIA KRAVITZ
sidered her next step.

Kravitz decided not to seek another
congregational position. Friends and
family members told her she was retired.

But she never fully adopted the label.

“Cynthia Kravitz does not know the
word retired,” the rabbi said. “I used
the year to study.”
She read Hebrew poetry twice
a week and took Zoom classes in
Jewish thought and history through
the Shalom Hartman Institute in
Israel and the Herbert D. Katz Center
for Advanced Judaic Studies at the
University of Pennsylvania.

“It cemented what I already knew,
but I could see it more clearly,” Kravitz
said. “Every generation of Jewish peo-
ple, we have our challenges. But it’s
our spirit and our belief that has really
carried us through.”
When Kravitz was meeting with
Hesed Shel Emet members during her
interview process, both in person and
over Zoom, she felt like they were her
partners. Both the rabbi and the con-
AUGUST 4, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
gregants understood their challenge:
Jews today are not affiliating with syn-
agogues like they did “40 or 50 years
ago,” Kravitz said.

“The biggest challenge is to help peo-
ple see the value of being able to come
together with others,” she added.

Based on that problem, the rabbi
and the congregation share a vision for
the future of the synagogue. Kravitz
said they want to “build relationships
between people,” and they want to
build them on the belief that “Judaism
is all of life.”
“My plan is to get people to interact
with each other as much as possible.

In person and on Zoom,” Kravitz said.

“Then you let people take it from there.”
Cohen believes that Kravitz and the
remaining members can make the
vision come to life. There are a lot
of Jews but not a lot of synagogues
in western Montgomery County, he
explained. The nearest synagogues are
in Phoenixville, Blue Bell and Reading,
all between 20 and 40 minutes away.

According to Cohen, a congregant
since 2015 who also grew up there in
the 1960s and ’70s, synagogue lead-
ers need to do a better job of reach-
ing out to people. They hired Kravitz
because, as an experienced rabbi, she
knows how to build a congregation and
understands that, in a community with
just 40 families, it’s her “number one
mission,” as Cohen described it.

“She needs to reach out and talk to
people,” he said. “Tell people we’re here
and we’re available.”
Hesed Shel Emet sold its Keim Street
building, which opened in 1962, to the
Bethel Community Church in 2016.

But congregants continue to worship
in its lower sanctuary. After giving
the church money for renovations, the
synagogue will begin paying $1,600 a
month in rent in a few years.

Cohen said the community will pay
that “in perpetuity until we decide to
end the contract.” JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com



d’var torah
Did I Make a Diff erence?
nmls 215-901-6521 • 561-631-1701
N OMIN
HAVE S ATIONS
TARTE D
2 BEST O
02 F
Rabbi David Levin manages Jewish
Relationships Initiative, a 501(c)(3),
this column are the author’s own and
do not refl ect the view of the Board of
Rabbis. BUSINESS / LEGAL DIRECTORIES
Jewish Exponent
PHILADELPHIA WI
JE his timeless question is in Moses’
heart as Devarim, the fi rst
parsha of Deuteronomy, as he
recounts the trials and tribulations from
Egypt to the edge of the Promised Land.

He has led the people faithfully, but
the old generation is gone. Moses pre-
pares for his death, Joshua is appointed
the new leader and a new generation of
people formed and steeled in the cru-
cible of the Midbar prepares to move
forward, leaving Moses behind.

Moses’ recollections are slightly
diff erent than what we read as things
occurred along the journey. Despite
pushback from the people and God, he
places himself in the spotlight as the
true champion in every circumstance.

Elie Weisel suggests, “Some stories
are true that never happened.” Indeed,
memories oft en are the recalling of
experiences based on the values that
helped us understand those experiences
and shaped us.

It has been an oft en-fraught rela-
tionship, with the people wanting to
rebel and turn back, factions acting
out against Moses and Moses saving
the people from God’s wrath. Moses
recounts things through the fi lter of his
memory and the desire to be remem-
bered for his accomplishments as the
person who brought B’nei Israel into
nationhood and to the Promised Land,
following God’s direction. But now, it is
Joshua’s turn as God’s chosen successor.

We sense the tension in the transition
as Moses recounts the extraordinary
experiences thus far under his tute-
lage. Although we consider Moses most
humble, even he needs to see that his
time has meaning, his life was for a pur-
pose and the people he served appreciate
all he has done.

We are on the verge of a new chapter.

At the edge of the Promised Land, the
needs are diff erent. New and fresh lead-
ership is required to meet the new tests,
the challenges of a new generation and
the new enterprise of taking the land
and dwelling in it. But this transition is
oft en abrupt and dismissive, without the
helping seekers of meaning through
Jewish wisdom, particularly relation-
ships and end-of-life challenges. Th e
Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia
is proud to provide diverse perspectives
on Torah commentary for the Jewish
Exponent. Th e opinions expressed in
SH PH
IA T
Parshat Devarim
respect the elders have earned.

Can we elevate the process by off ering
sincere gratitude and recognizing this
as a “shehecheyanu” moment? Can we
maintain a respectful place for those
soon-to-be former leaders as curators
of wisdom and institutional memory?
Th is kind of transition is a process, not
a moment. And the lessons of the Torah
are timely. Change a name and the set-
ting, and we are talking about us.

Th e pandemic accelerated many
changes already underway in our cul-
ture and society. Legacy institutions
have struggled with membership and
age; leaders are fi nding they do not
speak a language that resonates with the
next generation to engage them success-
fully; identity is more fl uid than ever.

For many clergy leaders, the time has
come to leave the pulpit and make way
for the new group of leaders. Can we
fi nd ways to usher this change along,
honoring the past while looking to
the future? I suggest that although the
methods may diff er, the Torah’s endur-
ing values remain constant.

We will lose much if we cannot embrace
the old while turning toward the new. It is
about giving our people both roots and
wings, to liken it to parenting.

It validates who we as parents are,
the nurturers and teachers. Th e values
they learn are the values we taught. Th e
ability to fi nd meaning is grounded in
the world in which we raised them. Th is
is a moment of extraordinary challenge,
and the opportunities are practically
unlimited. We brought them along on
this remarkable journey to this partic-
ular point.

Now they, the next generation, must
move forward, leaving us behind, but
carrying us in their hearts and minds.

Th is is the underlying message of the
phrase, Zichronam Livracha, may their
memories be for a blessing.

May we live our lives to bring honor
to a tradition grounded in morals and
ethics and understand that we live in
service to something greater. And may
the next generation honor us by doing
the same. JE
2 BY RABBI DAVID LEVIN
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