synagogue spotlight
Congregation Rodeph Shalom
Upholds tradition, grows with the times
W alking up to Congregation
Rodeph Shalom’s main
entrance just off North
Broad Street is a case study in 21st-cen-
tury Jewish awareness.

You cannot simply open the doors
and step inside. They are locked, and
a security guard must let you in —
and then you must sign your name
into an iPad that records your visit.

And even then, you probably need
an appointment with a synagogue
staff member to go any farther. (In
the Jewish Exponent’s case on Jan.

6, that was clergy assistant Sophia
Schwab.) But once inside, you will step into a
Jewish world that feels like it’s from
another century. Old president and
confi rmation class pictures line the
walls. The sanctuary has a tall ceiling
and two-level seating arrangement
that give it a feeling of grandeur, not
unlike an old European theater. And
you can hear people talking or children
laughing in diff erent rooms throughout
the building.

Rodeph Shalom’s 1,000-household
congregation is not a community that
gathers occasionally, for, say, a bar
mitzvah or a High Holiday service.

This is a group of Reform Jews that
is committed to and engaged with
the ongoing life of its 228-year-old
synagogue. And that seems to be what
they are protecting with those layers
of security.

“We’re the only Reform congrega-
tion in the city, and we’re the only
large congregation in the city,” said
Senior Rabbi Jill Maderer, who came to
Rodeph Shalom in 2001 and assumed
her current position in 2017.

According to Maderer, the Broad
Street congregation may include as
many as “3,000 souls.” Within that group
are young adults, families with school-
age kids, empty-nesters and retirees.

Most of them live in Center City.

24 JANUARY 12, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
Rodeph Shalom’s religious school
enrolls 300 students. Its Shabbat
services attract between 100 and
150 people to that striking sanctuary
and another 50-100 people to the
livestream. Maderer also estimates
that the synagogue hosts between
30 and 35 bar and bat mitzvahs
per year.

And each Wednesday morning, a
group of congregants walks around
Philadelphia neighborhoods to distrib-
ute fresh food and diapers, among
other products, to about 150 people
who could use the help.

“It speaks to the core values of
Judaism. Helping your neighbor.

Taking care of your community,”
said Heshie Zinman, a member since
2005. In this day and age of rising antisem-
itism, Rodeph Shalom is using signifi -
cant resources to protect its building
and the active community inside of it.

But in recent years, congregants say,
the community has actually become
more open at the same time.

Cheryl Dougherty joined in 1998
as “a religious school mom,” she
said. The synagogue was welcoming
to her non-Jewish husband and his
family. Leaders even made a point of
including her husband’s family in their
daughter’s bat mitzvah process.

But the community was still not quite
as welcoming as it is now, according
to Dougherty. It was bureaucratic and
hierarchical. You joined, and you did
things how they were done. No higher-
ups or longtime members reached
out to you to ask how you were doing
or where you were in your Jewish
journey. So after the mother’s “religious
school mom” era, she left Rodeph
Shalom for two years. But she returned
in 2010 because she felt she still
needed religion in her life. And during
these last 12 years, she has seen and
experienced Rodeph Shalom’s trans-
formation into a community that cares
deeply for the individual.

Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia
When Dougherty
rejoined, a synagogue
leader reached out to
her less than two weeks
later to see how she
was doing. Then she
joined an empty-nester
group with about a
dozen people and built
deep connections, as
she described them,
with people who were
in the same life situa-
tion. The synagogue's
charter promises not
to turn anyone away
who cannot pay, and
today, around 50% of
members do not pay
a full membership fee,
according to Dougherty,
though the congregation
The sanctuary inside Congregation Rodeph
does ask for “meaning-
Shalom ful” donations.

Now, when Dougherty
walks into Shabbat services, she can not. Whatever your notion of what
barely take a few steps before saying God is,’” Dougherty said. “There is a
desire to really meet members where
hello to person after person.

“They say, ‘Look, everyone’s on their they are.” ■
own journey here. Whether you’re
learned in the Torah or whether you’re jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
Photos by Jarrad Saff ren
Jarrad Saff ren | Staff Writer