H eadlines
Two Synagogues Hire New Rabbis
L OCA L
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
AREA SYNAGOGUES
Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El
in Wynnewood and Reform
Congregation Keneseth Israel in
Elkins Park hired new rabbis in
the past month.

Beth Hillel-Beth El, a
Conservative institution,
hired Rabbi Ethan Witkovsky
to replace the retiring Neil
Cooper, who will step down this
summer. Congregation leaders
announced the decision in a Feb.

4 email to the community.

“The survey responses,
feedback from congregants,
staff and clergy, and our
Rabbinic Search Committee
was overwhelmingly in favor of
Rabbi Witkovsky as the right fit
for our community,” they wrote.

Keneseth Israel tapped Rabbi
Benjamin David to succeed
Lance Sussman, who, like
Cooper, will retire this summer.

KI’s Board of Trustees revealed
the hire in a Jan. 20 post on the
temple’s website.

“KI’s Search Committee was
impressed with Rabbi David’s
commitment to teaching and
learning, building relationships
and engaging those across a
spectrum of ages and stages in
meaningful Jewish life,” they
said. Witkovsky will begin his
tenure in June, and David will
start on July 1.

Witkovsky, 37, is new to the
area. He grew up in Madison,
Wisconsin, graduated from
Oberlin College in Ohio,
attended rabbinical school in
Jerusalem and spent the past
eight years at Park Avenue
Synagogue in New York City.

But he was not the head rabbi
Rabbi Ethan Witkovsky
Photo by Karen Smul
Rabbi Benjamin David
Photo by Colin Lenton
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there. That’s the challenge he faces
now. “It was time to lead a commu-
nity,” he said.

David, 45, is from the
Philadelphia area. He grew up
at Temple Emanuel in Cherry
Hill, New Jersey, where his
father, Jerome P. David, is
rabbi emeritus after leading the
JEWISH EXPONENT
community from 1974 to 2021.

The David son attended
Camp Harlam and served in
NFTY, the youth organiza-
tion for Reform Jews. Through
those experiences, he found
himself at KI many times as a
youth; he knew of both its size,
with more than 1,000 member
families (today it’s closer to 800),
and its prestige in the Reform
movement with rabbis like
Sussman and his predecessor,
Simeon Maslin, a noted national
leader. Out of rabbinical school,
David served Temple Sinai in
Roslyn Heights, New York. Then
he moved on to his current home,
Adath Emanu-El in Mount
Laurel, New Jersey, a roughly
360- to 380-family synagogue.

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