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



d’var torah
Being Part of the
Solution BY RABBI DAVID LEVIN
Parshat Matot-Masei
M atot off ers a climax to one of
the troubling stories in the
formation of our people.

On the verge of entering the Promised
Land, the children of Israel must fi ght
the Midianite people fi rst. Although
Moses instructs his warriors, accord-
ing to God’s directive, to slay all the
Midianites, Moses is angered when the
army spares the women and children
and reiterates the command to kill.

(the fl ood, Sodom and the Korach
Rebellion, to name three).

When individuals assume that
responsibility and act on behalf of God,
it is dangerous. A humane approach
off ers compassion instead of annihi-
lation and a path toward peace. Th is
alternative does not dismiss the history
but does not make us slaves to the past,
repeating and perpetuating tribalistic
hate. Our tradition repeatedly admon-
ishes us to act with benevolence and,
in the words of Pirkei Avot, “Even in
a place where there are no menschen,
strive to be a mensch.”
Against this backdrop, we might
BUSINESS /
LEGAL DIRECTORIES
deprive ourselves of the very humanity
our tradition teaches.

We Jews are duty-bound to see and
respond to the Ukrainian people’s
human suff ering and the Poles’ heroic
eff orts. We know that the support by the
Poles is something no one off ered us as
the Shoah unfolded. And knowing this,
we can nonetheless be instruments in
alleviating anguish and perhaps elevat-
ing ourselves in the process.

We can serve as Or l’goyim, a light
to the nations, deeply rooted in our
belief that we can be agents of change;
partners in the ongoing act of creation;
that we hear of the suff ering and do
We can serve as Or l’goyim, a light to the nations, deeply
rooted in our belief that we can be agents of change; partners
in the ongoing act of creation; that we hear of the suff ering
and do not stand idly by as another’s blood is shed.

Were the Israelite people freed so they
would unquestioningly carry out God’s
dirty work? Or was this a test to see if we
were worthy of freedom and the respon-
sibilities such freedom carries? Were we
ready to serve God as a righteous light
to the nations? Th e army command-
ers understood the implications of this
barbaric act and refused to follow the
order. Moses overruled them, demand-
ing harsh vengeance.

Th is kind of retaliation is appalling
by our standards, and it was unaccept-
able for the Israelites, too. Th e phrase
“Just following orders” sends shudders
down the spine. But, even where legiti-
mate grievance exists, morality trumps
brutal vengeance. Matot is a warning
for us and our interaction in an oft en
inhospitable, antisemitic world.

However, the past cannot be the only
lens we use to see the future. Th ere
was legitimate grievance against the
Midianites. Th ey attempted to under-
mine the nascent Israelite nation, and
war appeared to be the way forward.

But following orders is insuffi cient rea-
son to commit atrocities. God’s ven-
geance is best left for God to transact
look again at the lessons of this part of
the parsha and see how we can apply
them in many current world aff airs
and, in particular, to the situation with
the Russian war’s eff ects on Ukrainians
and Poles. We cannot be indiff erent to
human suff ering; it goes against every-
thing our tradition demands.

Jewish history in Ukraine and
Poland is fraught. Persecution and
antisemitism characterize much of the
Jewish experience. Periods of welcome,
such as King Casimir III inviting Jews
to Poland as other countries expelled
them, are countered by the infamous
Khmelnytskyi and pogroms, which
accounted for the slaughter and ter-
ror of the Jewish population of the
region. It is little wonder that approx-
imately 2 million-plus Jews emigrated
to America at the turn of the 20th
century when the opportunity to leave
that place presented itself.

Furthermore, we understand that
deeply rooted antisemitism enabled the
Holocaust. Th ese are substantial rea-
sons for the Jewish psyche to be wary.

But if we are limited to only that, prac-
ticing hatred in response to hate, we
not stand idly by as another’s blood is
shed. Our values compel us to be part
of the solution to the problem rather
than remain mired in a history where
we were seen as the problem needing
to be solved.

Of course, we do not deny the past or
naively presume the days of Jew-hatred
are over. But we can take steps to help
the world become a better place. Th is is
a lesson I learned from Parsha Matot.

Shabbat Shalom. JE
Rabbi David Levin manages Jewish
Relationships Initiative, a 501(c)(3) help-
ing seekers of meaning through Jewish
wisdom, focusing on relationships and
end-of-life challenges. Th e Board of
Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia is proud
to provide diverse perspectives on Torah
commentary for the Jewish Exponent.

Th e opinions expressed in this column
are the author’s own and do not refl ect
the view of the Board of Rabbis.

nmls 215-901-6521 • 561-631-1701
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 25