synagogue spotlight
Members Keep South Philadelphia’s
‘Little Shul’ Alive
Jarrad Saffren | Staff Writer
Photos by Jarrad Saffren
I n a South Philadelphia neighborhood filled with
renovated rowhouses, Congregation Shivtei Yeshuron
Ezras Israel looks like it’s out of another era.

Its brick is weathered and discolored in certain
areas. The blue text above the door displaying the
synagogue name is faded. An opening
of the door and a step inside will leave
you with the distinct waft of old book
pages, as one congregant, Ariel Kamen,
describes it. And as you walk around the
bottom floor and then the top, you will see
yahrzeit memorials dating to the first half
of the 20th century, handcrafted Judaica
pieces and two columns of pews facing a
bimah in the center of a living room.

Congregation Shivtei Yeshuron Ezras
Israel, or the “Little Shul,” as it’s known
online and among members, looks like it’s
out of another era because it is. It dates
to the late 1800s when droves of Jewish
immigrants from Eastern Europe were Congregation Shivtei Yeshuron
goes back to the early
settling down in South Philly. Among the Ezras Israel, also known as the
Little Shul
1930s. While he did
more than 150 little shuls that emerged in
not raise his daughter
that period, it is the only one left.

The 15-25 members who remain gather once a at the old rowhome, he did host her bat mitzvah
here in 2001. Today, Berg is not that religious, but
month for a Shabbat morning service and kiddush.

“As long as we have a minyan, I’m happy,” said he still sits on the board at the Little Shul and comes
Richard Sisman, the synagogue’s president. “Because monthly for Shabbat.

“It served a place for immigrants who were strang-
it means the work we’ve put in is worthwhile.”
ers in a strange world to come to and find the people
The we that Sisman refers to is a group of Jews
from every generation who feel a connection to their from their own communities,” Berg said.

Dave Kalniz did not grow up at the Little Shul,
religion. Sisman, 65, grew up at the synagogue and returned but he has been going for 35 years. He lived in
as an adult after driving by one day, noticing that the the neighborhood when his father died, and he
doors were open, walking in and finding a service. walked over on Friday and Saturday that week to say
He describes his house growing up as “pretty kaddish, and just keeps coming back.

Kalniz grew up Orthodox and, while he tries to
secular.” His family celebrated the holidays but did
not keep kosher. As he put it, they were “spiritual, observe the Sabbath today, he only avoids activities
on Shabbos if he does not have to do them. But
not observant.”
It’s an approach that Sisman pretty much maintains. his Orthodox life experience makes him well-suited
But he’s committed to keeping the Little Shul alive. It to leading services at the Little Shul, a role he fills
is the president, after all, who organizes payments for admirably, according to Sisman.

“It’s haimishe. It’s a good community gathering,”
the minimal expenses on the synagogue’s paid-off
Kalniz said.

building. Daniel and Irene Berbit, 42 and 38, respectively,
“You do whatever you have to do not to let a
are younger than Sisman, Berg and Kalniz. But like
synagogue close. It’s just in my bones,” he said.

David Berg, a Mount Airy resident, also grew up at those older congregants, they feel their religion is
the Little Shul. His family history at the synagogue important. Daniel Berbit grew up Conservative and
Little Shul member David Berg
Irene Berbit’s mother found refuge in a synagogue
in New York City after the family emigrated from the
Soviet Union.

The Berbits enjoyed their first date at the Little
Shul in 2019 on the morning after they met at a
Shabbat dinner at the Old City Jewish Arts Center.

They’ve been coming back ever since.

“It’s something I was raised with,” Daniel Berbit
said. “It’s being part of the Jewish community,” Irene
Berbit added.

Kamen, who mentioned the old book smell, is
the youngest congregant at 23. After having a bat
mitzvah in her youth in Manalapan, New Jersey, she
reconnected with her Judaism in 2020. Now a nurse
who lives in West Philadelphia, Kamen likes to study
the weekly parshah on Saturday mornings.

In January, she Googled “oldest shul in Philly,” and
the Little Shul came up. She’s gone for six straight
months. She might even want to clean up the
synagogue’s library at some point.

“For it to be a place where people who are inter-
ested in seeing these historical things can come and
look and feel and inquire about things that they like,”
Kamen said. ■
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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