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Northwest Philadelphia Chavurah
Celebrates 50 Years
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
O n Dec. 17, a handful of families
will sit down for a Shabbat
meal, a celebration of a prac-
tice they’ve sustained for half a century.

Chavurah Bet, a small Jewish group
based in Northwest Philadelphia, will
celebrate 50 years since its fi rst conven-
ing. Since 1972, the group has hosted
Friday night Shabbat dinners, High
Holiday services, Passover seders,
movie and book groups, b’nai mitzvahs
and weekend retreats.

“Th is is one that got going and kept
going,” said Dick Goldberg, a 42-year
member. Common among the 12 member fam-
ilies was a desire to break free from the
mold of synagogue traditions and large
congregations that proved diffi cult for
some in fi nding community.

“We were looking for an alterna-
tive structure other than a synagogue,
where families together would do their
own planning and think about what
Judaism meant to them, to try to create
our own traditions,” member of 45
years Elliot Seif said.

Th e group created programming
driven by its values, but the structure
of the chavurah was not unique. In the
1960s and ’70s, many Jews, inspired by
the counterculture movement of the
time, desired to create their own small
communities. And before there was
Chavurah Bet, there was Chavurah
Aleph. Chavurah Aleph emerged years
prior, operating out of Germantown
Jewish Centre. Th e rabbi there allowed
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Chavurah Bet members at a chanukah celebration
the chavurah to use the space, the
beginning of the creation of GJC’s cul-
ture of “a community of communities”
according to Ellie Seif, Elliot’s wife and
Chavurah Bet member.

But as the chavurah movement
began to pick up steam, the group gen-
erated too much interest to accept new
members, while also maintaining its
internal culture and feel.

“It been going on for several years,
and they were a cohesive group — as
it should be,” Chestnut Hill resident
and Chavurah Bet founding member
Judy Levy said. “Because it needs to
be small; it needs to be intimate. ... In
order to make this work, you had to be
on the same page.”
Levy didn’t take it personally when
Chavurah Aleph told her she was
unable to join the group. Instead, she
created a second iteration of the group,
wanting to take all the best parts of
Aleph’s operation and, together with
a group of families also interested in
chavurot culture, make it their own.

Dedicated group members began to
organize services loosely based on the
traditional structure. Four groups of
three families were randomly selected
to have Shabbat dinners together —
totaling about 200 dinners since the
group’s inception — and the groups
rotated regularly. Th e chavurah created
a cookbook of Shabbat dinner favorites.

Th e group had retreats at Camps
Reeta and Arthur and lively conversa-
tions about Judaism, despite theological
Courtesy of Jo Baskin
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