synagogue spotlight
What’s happening at ... Ohev Shalom Synagogue
Ohev Shalom Continues to
Survive and Grow
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
O hev Shalom of Bucks County
opened in 1976 — just as Jews
were moving to the area —
and, in that time, it has reflected the evo-
lution of the area’s Jewish community.

From the mid-1970s through the
’90s, the Conservative synagogue grew
from 25 founding families to more
than 700 members, as baby boomers
sought a place to attend High Holiday
services and for their children to attend
preschool and religious school. But
since the late ’90s, Ohev’s membership
has declined to about 425 families.

Yet in many ways for this Richboro
community, less is more. Today’s con-
gregants are not, on average, joining
for their kids to have a place to grow up
Jewish, as Ohev only holds 15-20 bar
and bat mitzvahs a year, compared to
three or four on a given weekend a few
decades ago.

Instead, they are joining so they can
have a place to practice Judaism and
come together in community.

Executive Director
Barbara Glickman recently started a walking
club in a local park. It’s the first life-
style-type club in the 46-year history
of the temple, according to Rabbi Eliott
Perlstein, who has been with the syna-
gogue since the beginning.

And more of those types of activities
may follow. Glickman wants to open
a yoga club. Perlstein may ask congre-
gants if they are interested in doing
Torah study in the park.

“We’ve become a boutique syna-
gogue,” the rabbi said.

Perlstein and other Ohev leaders
saw the change coming as far back
as 2016 when they decided to change
their financial model. For decades, like
many other Conservative and Reform
shuls in the Philadelphia area, Ohev
operated on a hierarchical system for
paying dues.

Essentially, if you paid X amount,
you became a member. But the financial
transaction came first and foremost.

36 Rabbi Eliott Perlstein of Ohev Shalom
of Bucks County
A Passover activity at Ohev Shalom of Bucks County
Photo by Barbara Glickman
Courtesy of Rabbi Eliott Perlstein
In 2016, though, Perlstein and his
team decided to let families join with-
out paying anything. They could put
their children through religious school
from ages 4-7 and still not pay a dime.

At that point, if they wanted to join,
they could start paying dues.

“Would families want to be members
when the time came?” Perlstein asked.

The answer was pretty much “yes.”
Perlstein said the retention rate for
such members is more than 90%. Once
they joined and became part of the
community, they wanted to stay.

Ohev’s membership was stagnant
before it changed its payment plan,
according to Perlstein. Since then, the
synagogue has attracted new members
who may not have joined otherwise.

The rabbi disputes the notion that
millennials are not interested in join-
ing things. He said synagogues just
need to meet them where they are.

“They hear that there’s a synagogue
interested in reaching out to people,
and it’s not all about the bottom line,”
the rabbi said.

To be clear, Ohev’s bottom line is still
pretty strong.

JUNE 16, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Perlstein described a membership of
more than 400 families as “relatively
large.” Ohev also has more than 100
students in its religious school, though
it no longer offers a preschool. And
while the bar and bat mitzvah schedule
is not as busy as it once was, there is
still more than one a month.

As it approaches its 50th anniver-
sary, Ohev remains a functional and
well-adapted institution. Perlstein,
Glickman and Cantor Annelise
Ocanto-Romo believe the temple’s
values are to thank for its ability to
survive. No matter what may be going on
outside its doors, the Richboro con-
gregation takes the same approach
to growing with the times. Perlstein
describes it as tradition plus creativity.

A continued
emphasis on
Conservative elements of Judaism like
Kashrut and the Conservative prayer
book combines with a consistent will-
ingness to embrace change, such as
allowing girls to have bat mitzvahs on
Shabbat morning, which Ohev started
as soon as it opened, unlike other
Conservative synagogues of the day.

“We started off with full equality,”
Perlstein said.

Glickman joined Ohev in 1999
because she was looking for a preschool
for her children. Ocanto-Romo took on
her role in 2015 after serving at a syn-
agogue in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Both spoke of the same feeling when
they first walked in and started engag-
ing in temple activities.

“Everybody was super welcoming
and very friendly,” Glickman said.

“I just felt the warmth,” Ocanto-
Romo added.

So did her husband, a Jew by choice.

“Ohev was inviting him to come,”
the cantor said.

Ocanto-Romo runs the bar and bat
mitzvah tutoring program at the syn-
agogue and, in her role, led another
important change for the Conservative
community — allowing non-Jewish
parents to stand on the bimah next to
their Jewish spouses during their chil-
dren’s bar and bat mitzvahs.

“The cantor is right,” Perlstein said.

“It’s a very major change.” JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com