synagogue spotlight
What’s happening at ... Main Line Reform Temple
Main Line Reform Temple Welcomes
New, Familiar Rabbi
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
M ain Line Reform Temple-
Beth Elohim opened in 1952
with 55 founding families
and meetings in the Ardmore Women’s
Club. Later that year, the first Reform
synagogue on the Main Line brought on
its first spiritual leader in Rabbi Theodore
H. Gordon.

Of the four senior rabbis to serve
the congregation in its 70-year history,
three, Gordon (1953-1972), Rabbi Max
Hausen (1972-1996) and Rabbi David
Straus (1998-2022), served long enough
to mark eras at the Wynnewood insti-
tution, which today gathers at its own
building on Montgomery Avenue.

This is the legacy that Rabbi Geri
Newburge, Main Line Reform Temple’s
new senior rabbi as of July 1, is inheriting,
and no one is more ready to take on the
responsibility, according to synagogue
members. Newburge, 48, has already been with
the temple for almost a decade, arriving
in 2013 to serve as associate rabbi. She
acted as senior rabbi starting on July 1,
2021, as Straus spent his final year on
sabbatical. And Newburge is “a real per-
son who you can have real conversations
with,” said Amy Krulik, the synagogue’s
executive director.

“She is a natural leader and really does
thrive on feedback,” added Lori Robbins,
the vice president of the synagogue’s
board of trustees.

Newburge, for her part, is excited to
become a senior rabbi for the first time.

She was ordained at the Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion in
Cincinnati in 2003. Then she spent 10
years as an associate rabbi to Jerome P.

David at Temple Emanuel in Cherry
Hill, New Jersey. After that, she served
another nine years on Straus’ team.

But it’s not just the promotion and
chance to lead that excite Newburge. It’s
that she gets to do it at Main Line Reform
Temple. She may have reached the point
in her rabbinical journey where she has a
long-term home; she also feels comfort-
able in that home.

24 Rabbi Geri Newburge 
“Even though I’ve essentially been
doing a lot of it for the past year, the real-
ity of it is sinking in,” she said. “It’s just
a wonderful and exciting new chapter.”
Newburge is taking over an institution
that does not quite face the same survival
questions that many other synagogues
battle today.

MLRT still has about 850 member
families. Its building underwent a $10
million renovation under Straus that
added new worship spaces and wheel-
chair accessibility. And it navigated the
turbulent waters of the pandemic with
another $800,000 capital campaign to
keep the lights on.

The synagogue is also in good shape
in its education wing. MLRT’s Early
Childhood Education center is full for
the coming year with 155 students. Its
K-12 religious school has more than 300
students enrolled for 2022-’23.

This fall, Newburge and Main Line
Reform Temple will open the doors for
JULY 28, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Yael Pachino Photography
congregants to attend High Holiday ser-
vices in person. They have not done so
since before the pandemic in 2019.

“To be able to look into people’s eyes and
be in community with them brings a tre-
mendous amount of relationship-build-
ing, and that’s really why I became a
rabbi,” Newburge said. “It’s harder to do
that virtually than it is in person.”
Newburge’s vision for the community
is of people getting together in the physi-
cal reality. When people think of MLRT,
she wants them to think of peace, joy and
love, she explained.

“And I think, from there, good things
flow,” she added. “Education, ritual
observances, life cycle events.”
Newburge knows that the synagogue
does not need any major additions or
renovations at the moment, so she is
focusing on smaller but still important
initiatives. Over the next year, she hopes
to restore the temple’s Torahs and rework
the post-b’nai mitzvah program to add a
trip to Israel for ninth and 10th graders.

“One of the things I love about Main
Line Reform Temple is there’s a culture
of excellence, and that is something I feel
is a part of who I am,” Newburge said.

“We’re constantly striving to be the best
that we can be.”
In many ways, though, their best just
means a continuation of what they are
already doing.

Newburge is “in tune with congre-
gants and what our needs are,” member
Jennie Nemroff said. The rabbi hosts a
well-attended movie night at the syna-
gogue, hikes with members on Saturday
mornings in a local park and attends beer
club events with them at area restaurants.

At the same time, she officiates their
weddings and funerals, always with a
personal touch.

“We see her in all kinds of lights,”
Nemroff said. “She’s human.” JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com