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



d’var torah
Lifting Each Other Up
By Rabbi Shawn Zevit
F Parshat Vayetze
ollowing the stealing of his brother
Esav’s blessing from their father
Yitzhak at the behest of his mother
Rivka, Yaakov escaped the threat of
violence sworn by his brother and
retreated to the land his mother came
from. On his journey of several weeks,
Yaakov had an important dream that
symbolized to him his mission in life —
a ladder stretching between the earthly
world and the spiritual universe, with
“angels going up and down.”
For the medieval philosopher Moshe
ben Maimonides (Th e RaMBaM),
angels were forms of intelligence
through which Divinity is expressed
and guides us. Human consciousness is
seen as a form of an “angel” — contain-
ers of Godly awareness and guidance.

Rabbi Rami Shapiro, a contemporary
rabbi, writes poetically that,
“Angels are another name for feelings
When we love and act with kindness
We create angels of love and kindness ...

When we hate and act with violence
We create angels of hate and violence.

It is our job to fi ll our world with
angels of love
Messengers of kindness
Th at link people together as one family.”
Yaakov awakes from his dream in awe
of the Place (“Hamakom” — another
name in our tradition for Divinity) he
has been, stating that “God was in or is
this place, and I, I didn’t get it!”
We elevate this moment as one of the
grand spiritual awakenings in the Torah
and pivotal moments in Yaakov’s life.

Th e vision of angels going up to heaven
and back down, and God bearing wit-
ness to it all is transcendent. Yet even
though these, angels, messengers and
the message itself, produce some awe
and gratitude in Yaakov, they do not
change his basic character immediately.

Waking from this dream he is still
Yaakov — the “heel grabber,” the
“negotiator.” Meeting Rachel and then
Leah is a key to his true transforma-
tion. Love will do what a solitary vision
could not. When Yaakov returns to this
place 20 years later, he engages with
a Divine messenger again, now able
to strive for integrity and truth and
wrestle a blessing and a new name out
of the encounter — Yisrael.

In our world today, the societies we
have developed and even our faith tra-
ditions do not on their own guarantee
that we are able to translate our techno-
logical, economic or scientifi c advances
into actions for the greater good of all.

Loving each other, breaking down bar-
riers and walls between us, caring for
the earth and uniting for justice and
countering hate in all forms are ways
we can build a stairway to heaven in
this Place — right where we are.

Just as Yaakov needed to learn to be
in loving relationship without trickery
and deceit, we, too, must wrestle with
our own angels and fears to develop
caring and compassionate relation-
ships on the road to becoming who we
can truly be.

During these times, we have also
rallied together, with the support of
our siblings from all faiths and com-
munities, to keep our hearts and sacred
spaces responsibly open, navigating
increased security and COVID health
protocols. Ultimately, it is these relationships
that will carry us toward living the
dream of peace and a meaningful and
sustainable life for all. We need not
wait another generation, as Yaakov had
to, to come back to the same place and
wrestle a blessed outcome of a unifying
vision for all humanity and the world.

Let us be strong in our values and
lift each other up to become the angels
that move both heaven and earth, with
the actions and commitments of our
own hands and hearts, and the loving
sacred relationships we build together
along the way. JE
Rabbi Shawn Israel Zevit is rabbi at
Mishkan Shalom in Philadelphia. 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
this column are the author’s own and
do not refl ect the view of the Board of
Rabbis. social announcements
MAYA LIOR SNYDER
A lan and Sheila Snyder of
Bensalem and Mark and
Rhonna Shatz of West Bloomfi eld,
Michigan, announce the birth of
their granddaughter, Maya Lior
Snyder, daughter of Dr. Allison
Snyder and Navy Lt. Cmdr. Scott
Snyder and sister of Sophia Lily of
Rockville, Maryland.

Maya Lior was born on
Aug. 19. Sharing in the joy are
great-grandmother Ledra Sachs;
aunt and uncle Qiaoyan and
Ben Rosenberg; cousin Leib
Rosenberg; aunt and uncle Stacey and Josh Hirsch; and cousin
Aaron Hirsch.

Photo by Allison Snyder
MAR R I AG E
ASSOURKIRSCHNER M
erle and Isaac Assour of Huntingdon Valley and Hope and Lee
Kirschner of Bala Cynwyd announce the marriage of their
children, Danielle Lily Assour and Bryan Aaron Kirschner on Nov.

12. The ceremony took place at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia.

Danielle graduated from Penn State University, earning her
degree in advertising and communications. She works in digital
marketing. Bryan is also a graduate of Penn State University and works
as a special education teacher at Perelman Jewish Day School.

Sharing in their happiness are siblings Hannah Assour and
Ben Assour and Brittany Rosen (Blake).

Danielle is the granddaughter of Gloria and Edwin Concors, z’l, and Marselle and
Amram Assour, z’l. Bryan is the grandson of Sharon and Paul Feigenbaum, z’l, and Beverly
Yanoff , z’l.

The couple resides in Center City and will take their honeymoon in December to Dubai,
Kenya and Tanzania.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 25
Courtesy of the Assour family
B I RTH