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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Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El in Wynnewood
Courtesy of Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El
But David is in the last year
of his contract at Adath Emanu-
El, and though he thought he
might return, he was looking at
openings on a Reform job board.

Th at was when he saw that KI
had an opening.

“Th ere’s an expectation at KI
that we continue to be a leading
voice in the Reform movement
and in the Philadelphia Jewish
community,” David said. “To
me, that’s really alluring.”
Witkovsky sold himself to
Beth Hillel-Beth El leaders with
his people skills.

During his weekend visit
to the synagogue at the end of
the interview process, the rabbi
asked people questions, paid
attention and remembered
names, according to Barbara
Bookman, synagogue president.

He connected with kids in
the early childhood center by
sitting on the fl oor and talking to
them; he built rapport with older
religious school students by using
silly topics to spark conversations
about Jewish values. Witkovsky
told the sixth- and seventh-
graders, for example, that there
was a Jewish way to tie your shoes.

“He is very easy to get to
know,” Bookman said. “Really
natural.” David seemed to convince KI
higher-ups with his resume at
Adath Emanu-El.

KI’s website announcement
cited “meaningful relationships
with congregants” as the fi rst
highlight from his time in Mount
Laurel. But it also credited David
with promoting social justice
initiatives, expanding Israel
engagement and revitalizing the
post b’nai mitzvah program and
the adult bar/bat mitzvah and
confi rmation programs, among
other accomplishments.

Th e post said David “has
been an inspiring leader for the
past 10 years,” referring to his
time at Adath Emanu-El.

Witkovsky and David are
taking over spiritual leadership
at established congregations
with hundreds of families. Yet
they face a challenge unlike any
that rabbis have faced before.

Both men said adapting to
the post-pandemic future was
their most important task.

How do you use virtual spaces
without overusing them? And,
on a related note, how do you
still get people to actually come
to synagogue?
Neither man had a clear
answer, as no one really does. But
they at least knew where to start.

“People are looking for a
community that cares about
them,” Witkovsky said. “To be
here for them in good times
and bad.”
“Intentionally being a rabbi
that is present and caring and
helping to set the tone for the
broader community to be
present and caring for each
other,” David concluded. ●
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