synagogue spotlight
What’s happening at ... Spruce Street Minyan
Spruce Street Minyan a
Patchwork of Young Jews
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
I f the United States is the “melting pot”
— a combination of disparate tradi-
tions and cultures blended into one
— then perhaps Spruce Street Minyan
could be considered a melting pot for
millennial and Generation Z Jews.

During its monthly gatherings,
about 50-100 young Jews, mainly
young professionals and graduate stu-
dents, convene on Friday night at their
rented space at the Philadelphia Ethical
Society in Rittenhouse Square and par-
ticipate in lay-led, egalitarian services,
blending the traditions and rituals that
its diverse membership grew up with.

“We have people who most frequently
attend the Modern Orthodox shuls in
Philadelphia, such as Mekor Habracha,
or the South Philly Shtiebel that will
come to our events, even if they didn’t
necessarily grow up going to egalitar-
ian services,” minyan board member
Doug Russ said. “We have people who
grew up Conservative, Reform or even
unaffiliated, and we try to make every-
one feel as comfortable as possible.”
During services, phones go off and
are put away to be sensitive to attendees
who are shomer Shabbos. For every
potluck kiddush, there are kosher
and kosher-style buffet tables for the
respective dishes to accommodate those
keeping kosher, though everyone dines
together. In addition to monthly ser-
vices, the group hosts happy hours and
picnics, which for some members, “may
be the Jewish thing they do,” Russ said.

“Because we’re entirely volunteer-led,
the leaders of the service change,”
board member Talia Berday-Sacks said.

“So we’re always trying to showcase a
different person who might represent a
different community.”
Composed of transplants to the city
or young people who are just starting to
call Philadelphia home, Spruce Street
Minyan takes an “organic” approach to
its programming, prioritizing engage-
ment and the changing social needs of
its community.

“What’s really cool about Philly is
24 Spruce Street Minyan members at a summer happy hour event
Courtesy of Talia Berday-Sacks
During its monthly gatherings, about
50-100 young Jews, mainly young
professionals and graduate students,
convene on Friday night at their
rented space.

there are so many small, grassroots
groups that fulfill really, really specific
niches, and you can enable them to
survive and thrive if that’s what you’re
looking to do,” Berday-Sacks said. “I
mean, we are here; we’ve been around
for five years.”
Before its regular Kabbalat Shabbat
services at the Ethical Society, Spruce
Street Minyan had its beginnings in 2016
at a predictable location: Spruce Street, in
an apartment nestled in the Gayborhood
rented by two recent college graduates,
Gabi Wachs and Lilli Flink.

Wachs grew up in Philadelphia and
attended Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El;
she met Flink, a Chicago native, at
DECEMBER 1, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Barnard College, and the two relocated
to Philadelphia, where they spent their
weekends fruitlessly trying to find a
spiritual space they clicked with.

They finally decided to host Shabbat
services at a potluck dinner at their
apartment, and, after a few months
of consistent gathering, the makeshift
minyan had swelled and outgrown the
Spruce Street place.

Though Spruce Street Minyan is no
longer located on its eponymous street,
the group hasn’t strayed far from its
roots. The goal is still to bring together
young Jewish people in search of con-
nections. “It’s really meaningful to help forge
those connections,” Russ said. “And
people keep coming back because I
think they really derive a lot of spiritual
meaning out of it, but also build a lot of
community from it, too.”
When Tova Perlman graduated from
her graduate program at the University
of Pennsylvania in 2021, she looked for
both a spiritually and socially fulfilling
Jewish space before she found Spruce
Street Minyan.

“In general, it’s hard to make friends
post-college,” she said. “It’s hard to
have gathering spaces where you see
the same people over and over again
and build those relationships.”
Jewish 20- and 30-somethings in
Philadelphia have had success in build-
ing community, largely because it’s a
small, big city, Perlman said. She’ll
see the people she met at Spruce Street
Minyan again at Moishe House or
Tribe12 events, cementing connections
that would have otherwise remained
fleeting. Particularly during the pandemic,
Perlman said, “peripheral friendships”
— the casual relationships one has
through work or a shared interest —
became near impossible to find.

“Spruce Street has provided a good
platform for building my network again,
which I really appreciate,” she said.

Russ said that in addition to pro-
viding opportunities in the evening
to shmooze, the potluck after services
has resulted in such lively conversa-
tion that minyan attendees have stayed
until after 10 p.m., at which point they
were asked to leave because the Ethical
Society building was closing.

This enthusiasm is necessary to sus-
tain Spruce Street Minyan. Made up
primarily of a demographic that is in
a transitional time in their lives, the
group experiences a decent amount of
turnover. The minyan relies on young
people whose lives have been enriched
by the small spiritual community.

“We exist,” Berday-Sacks said,
“because of really dedicated members
who give back.” JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com