H eadlines
Synagogue Admins Built Community During COVID
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
ON MARCH 13, 2020, Ben
Wachstein, president of the
Delaware Valley Association
of Synagogue Administrators,
thought that the impending
COVID-19 lockdown would
last two weeks, and that area
synagogues would resume
normal activity by April.

T h e fo l l ow i n g we e k ,
Wachstein, along with the other
DVASA members, realized
that things weren’t going to be
that easy.

Over the past 15 months,
DVASA, a g roup of a
dozen-or-so synagogue admin-
istrators across the region, went
from meeting sporadically to
Zooming weekly, sometimes
more, trading tips and tricks
on how to stay afloat during
the pandemic — and forging
deep connections with each
A recent DVASA Zoom meeting
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As a group, we are incredibly willing to share
our experiences and information.”
BRIAN RISSINGER
other along the way.

At first, DVASA members
were emailing each other
ceaselessly, trying to make
sense of the rapidly changing
climate. Wachstein made the
snap judgment to host weekly
Zoom calls instead as a way
of exchanging information
and supplies more efficiently:
Where were people getting
hand sanitizer? Disinfectant
wipes? Were they supposed to
be wearing masks?
Wachstein feared for his
employees safely.

Brian Rissinger, execu-
tive director at Reform
Congregation Keneseth
Israel and a DVASA member
for 34 years, was challenged
with laying off dozens of staff
members. Most shuls had to confront
the operation of preschools.

Many closed over the course of
the pandemic and, when some
reopened, administrators were
tasked with designing proce-
dures to keep both the children
and staff safe.

DVASA’s direction quickly
pivoted when shuls began to
close indefinitely.

According to Wachstein,
2 0 -30% of A mer ic a n
synagogues were expected to
shutter during the pandemic.

Few administrators knew
how to apply for federal Payroll
Protection Program loans
and feared the worst for their
synagogues. One member gave
the others a crash course in
applying for the loans, another
taught them how to receive
The Employee Retention Tax
Credit. Wachstein said the
synagogues saved thousands of
dollars because of it.

Rissinger explained that
because there isn’t a specific
training regiment for adminis-
trators, some have backgrounds
in business and facilities
management, and others in
social work or past leadership
in their congregation.

“As a group, we are incred-
ibly willing to share our
experiences and information,”
Rissinger said. “There’s nothing
gained by being tight-lipped.”
Beyond career creden-
tials, DVASA
members represent a diversity of Jewish
backgrounds. While national
organizations such as the
National American Association
of Synagogue Executives and
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H EADLINES
National Association of Temple
Executives serve Conservative
and Reform administrators,
respectively, DVASA spans
across denominations.

“We haven’t heard of any
other local group developing
and holding force to provide this
type of camaraderie,” said Robin
Minkoff, executive director
of Beth Sholom Synagogue in
Elkins Park. She has been a
DVASA member for more than
two years, the entirety of her
tenure at Beth Sholom.

Ji l l C ooper, DVASA’s
past president and executive
director of Beth David Reform
Congregation in Gladwyne for
the past 14 years, believes that
it’s DVASA’s commitment and
connection to one another that
sets them apart.

“We hold each other up, and
we laugh, and we kibitz and
we make fun of each other,”
Cooper said.

Working up to 80 hours
a week, Wachstein, who
until recently was the execu-
tive director of Temple Siani
in Dresher before moving to
Baltimore, was exhausted. One
day, he remembers being too
tired to speak. By the end of
the day, he had received texts,
calls and emails from DVASA
members, all saying they were
there if he needed them.

“I don’t think any of us
would have gotten through
any of this without each other,”
Cooper said.

Aft er running a synagogue
with closed doors for so long,
Wachstein, with the help of
DVASA, is fi nally fi guring out
how to open them.

Last week, congregants
at Beth El Congregation of
Baltimore, the synagogue
at which Wachstein is newly
executive director, were able
to attend in-person Friday
night Shabbat services without
having to preregister to attend.

Th ere were more than 100
attendees, and Wachstein
swore he “could see smiles
almost through their masks.”
Wachstein can breathe
another sigh of relief. Between
the two synagogues he
worked for over the course of
the pandemic, there were no
workplace transmissions of
COVID-19. At this point, as adminis-
trators are busy planning high
holiday services — online,
in-person and hybrid — for
this coming September,
DVASA still holds meetings
weekly over Zoom.

But Cooper hopes that
doesn’t continue for too long:
She’d rather have the next
meeting in person. ●
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
Stein Continued from Page 9
for interfaith women and
non-binary people to celebrate
traditions and spirituality, and
reclaimed her title of rabbi that
she denounced aft er leaving
her Orthodox community.

She is working on a cookbook,
another memoir and a televi-
sion show.

Stein no longer sees her
Judaism and queerness in
contention with one another,
and in her talk, which coincided
with the fi rst days of LGBT
Pride Month, she wanted to
make sure others did not see
that way, either.

“Being Jewish makes me
a better person and a better
queer person; being queer
makes me a better person and a
better Jewish person,” she said.

“And that is something that is
worthy of celebration.” ●
relationship to being male,
female, both or neither.

Despite the textual evidence,
Stein doesn’t believe she should
have to use them to prove her
existence as a trans woman: “I
don’t think we need religious
texts to justify who we are.

I don’t like that. We need to
learn to accept people because
of who they are, because that’s
the right thing to do.”
In 2016, Stein celebrated
her bat mitzvah and naming
ceremony at Romemu Synagogue
in New York. She showed her
audience a portion of the event
via a grainy video clip. Aft er the
rabbi announces her name, Stein
is nearly swallowed by congre-
gants and clergy singing and
dancing around her, rejoicing.

Since then, Stein helped srogelberg@jewishexponent.com;
found Sacred Space, a forum 215-832-0741
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