synagogue spotlight
Congregation Leyv Ha-Ir Remains a
‘Link in the Chain’ of Jewish Continuity
Jarrad Saffren | Staff Writer
34 JUNE 1, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
Leyv Ha-Ir was founded by women
who had been “excluded from even
touching a Torah” in other Jewish
communities, the rabbi said. While the
community has always had a spiritual
leader, with Greenberg serving as the
third, it also maintained that lay-led
spirit. Members organize minyans and
book groups, among other activities.

Once a month, Greenberg leads a
Shabbat service. Every other weekend,
congregants take control.

And the rabbi prefers it that way.

Like a member, she just enjoys seeing
people multiple times a week. She’s
part of a Wednesday morning Zoom
session about heavy topics like coping
with memory loss. Every week, the
topic is different, and the 15-25 people
who attend really talk.

“You’re not anonymous in this
community,” Greenberg said.

Bobbi Cohen, the synagogue’s presi-
dent, joined in 2000 after a friend told
her about it. As she started attend-
ing services and other events, Cohen
connected with the Reconstructionist
Leyv Ha-Ir members at a congregational event
experience. She liked the emphasis on
music and the openness of the rabbi at
the time, Rayzel Raphael, who allowed
members to “question things as they
were taught,” Cohen recalled.

For the first time in her adult life, the
single woman felt like she belonged
in a shul. While living in Marlton and
Mount Laurel in South Jersey, Cohen
tested out a few synagogues. But she
could tell that they were places for
families with kids.

Leyv Ha-Ir felt open to anyone.

“It was more casual, and casual in
terms of the way people dressed.

People would sometimes interrupt the
rabbi to ask a question. If people were
singing a song, you could make a
suggestion as to what you would sing,”
she said. “Everybody is a participant. It
felt right.”
At first, Cohen commuted to Center
City for shul activities. But she was
considering a move into the city
anyway, and the synagogue made her
decision easier. She moved to Center
City and became an official member
around the same time that Greenberg
started. “I said if I move into Center City and
like the new rabbi, there would be
no question that I would join,” Cohen
recalled. As Greenberg put it, despite its lack
of property, children and a full-time
rabbi, Leyv Ha-Ir is “thriving.” It has
more members and money than ever,
yes, and, of course, that’s nice. But it’s
not even about that, according to the
rabbi. It’s about living Jewishly without the
pressure of maintaining the business
of a synagogue.

“We are a link in the chain of continu-
ity meeting the needs of people in this
community. The purpose of Judaism is
to be a vehicle for the flow of Jewish
wisdom and spiritual connection into
the world,” she explained. “As long
as we are doing that and people find
meaning in that, there will be Jewish
continuity.” ■
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com Courtesy of Congregation Leyv Ha-Ir
Rabbi Julie Greenberg
Courtesy of Rabbi Julie Greenberg
C ongregation Leyv Ha-Ir is a
Reconstructionist synagogue
with no property, no program-
ming for school-age children, a
part-time rabbi and suggested but not
mandatory dues. But the Center City
community is nonetheless a formal
one along the lines of a traditional
synagogue, according to Rabbi Julie
Greenberg. It just caters to a different
type of congregant.

“It’s a Jewish community for adults
who want Jewish community for
themselves,” Greenberg said. “Not
because they need a bar or bat mitzvah
for their offspring.”
In most cases, they don’t even have
offspring, according to the rabbi. There
are around 85 individual members
in Leyv Ha-Ir. On occasion, congre-
gants will bring their grandchildren
to High Holiday services. Other than
that, children do not really appear at
congregational events.

Some members have already raised
families. Others never had kids in the
first place. Most are empty nesters over
60 who live close enough to Leyv Ha-Ir’s
Rittenhouse Square meeting rooms.

Membership lengths range from
one year to five years to 10 years to
33 years, dating to the synagogue’s
founding in 1990. On High Holidays,
Greenberg leads services in the First
Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, and
hundreds of people attend for free.

And each year, new congregants join
the community. The rabbi said that
Leyv Ha-Ir’s congregation and endow-
ment are bigger than they’ve ever
been. In the era of hybrid services,
some members have joined from
California and Massachusetts.

“Our people take soup to each
other, give each other rides to doctor’s
appointments and send birthday cards
to each other,” said Greenberg. “It’s a
very caring community.”



d’var torah
Leading a Different Kind of Life
Rabbi Geri Newburge
I Parshat Naso
n the famous tale “If Not Higher,”
Yiddish writer I. L. Peretz weaves the
tale of a Litvak (a Jewish person who
is stereotyped as overly cerebral and
extremely rational and represents a
contrarian perspective to the Chasidim)
who becomes curious as to where the
local Chasidic, and highly esteemed,
rabbi goes every year on the days
leading up to Rosh Hashanah.

Rumor has it that he ascends to
heaven to beg God to forgive the sins
of the villagers, but the man does not
believe this. He secretly follows the
rabbi home one day and hides under
his bed in order to see what he does
next and where he goes.

second from the book of Numbers, and
the longest of all the portions. It shares
the curious case of the nazir, a person of
any gender who voluntarily takes a vow
to lead a different kind of life, with explicit
rules not to drink wine, cut one’s hair or
come into close contact with the dead.

It is likely the last of these qualifica-
tions does not require too much persua-
sion, but in all cases the nazir follows a
prescribed practice for a period of time,
just as the rabbi did, in order to gain a
greater sense of purpose or to enhance
their sense of holiness.

There are several cases of nazirites
in our texts that seem to elevate them
to a lofty place. The most famous is
Samson, who possessed superhuman
strength due to his uncut hair, and
whose story in the book of Judges is
told in the weekly haftarah accompa-
is no evidence of any nazirites past
the Middle Ages, I think the sages are
inviting us to think about the questions:
What kind of person are you? What kind
of person do you want to be?
We — the Jewish people — are out of
the ordinary, just a very small fraction
of the population, though it is relatively
easy to not be Jewish in America
(despite the recent spike in antisem-
itism). Yet this does not mean we are
exempt from considering something
“wonderfully different” as a community
or an individual.

If we take the paradigm of the nazir
as a person who commits oneself to
sacred deeds or efforts, we can volun-
tarily bring greater meaning and inten-
tion to our lives. What little changes
— even if seemingly insignificant — can
we each make in our lives?
While a nazirite vow is no longer
permitted, sometimes we need a
moment to remember what is import-
ant in life, and to take action to help
ourselves reach “even higher.” ■
Rabbi Geri Newburge is the senior
rabbi at Main Line Reform Temple in
Wynnewood. The Board of Rabbis
of Greater Philadelphia is proud to
provide diverse perspectives on Torah
commentary for the Jewish Exponent.

The opinions expressed in this column
are the author’s own and do not
necessarily reflect the view of the
Board of Rabbis.

If we take the paradigm of the nazir as a
person who commits oneself to sacred deeds
or efforts, we can voluntarily bring greater
meaning and intention to our lives.

Early in the morning, the rabbi rises,
disguises himself as a woodcutter and
ventures into the forest to chop wood.

He delivers it to a poor widow, even
lighting the fire for her. When he sees
what the rabbi is doing, the Litvak
recognizes just how special the rabbi is,
and whenever he overhears the rumor
about the rabbi ascending to heaven,
the man nods and says, “If not higher.”
Though the rabbi was a well-re-
spected leader, his community couldn’t
help but wonder where he disappeared
to and especially at such an important
time of year. As we come to learn, this
particular rabbi took upon himself an
extra responsibility. Perhaps he was
just a very sympathetic and caring man,
or perhaps he wished to elevate his
life by performing a certain deed or
mitzvah. This week’s parsha is Naso, the
nying Naso. The Jewish perspective on
the nazir varies, with extensive discus-
sion and specifics of the nazirite vow,
the laws regulating the individual and
her/his commitment, and the ritual to
conclude the nazirite period found in
the Talmudic tractate Nazir.

The medieval commentator Sforno
suggests the nazir vows “to separate
himself from all the pleasures in order
to devote himself exclusively to the
service of the Eternal, to study Torah
and practice walking in the Eternal’s
ways.” Other commentators suggest
that what the nazir commits to is simply
“not ordinary,” but my favorite reflec-
tion comes from Rabbeinu Bachya,
who proclaims that the nazirite is doing
something “wonderfully different.”
It’s hard to know exactly what
“wonderfully different” means, but it
sounds incredibly enticing. Since there
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