synagogue spotlight
What’s happening at ... Beth El in Yardley
Beth El in Yardley
Hires New Rabbi
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
I t’s not every day that a man from
California falls in love with a town
in the Philadelphia suburbs and
migrates across the country.

But the new rabbi at Congregation
Beth El in Yardley, David Cantor, is
doing just that.

In the winter, the rabbi was looking
to leave his Long Beach congregation
due to rising rent prices and the unat-
tainable price of a starter home (about
$1 million) in the area. During his
interview process, he visited Yardley
and felt a connection with Beth El offi -
cials and congregants. He drove around
the town’s neighborhoods, dined on its
main street and fell in love.

Between June 20-24, Rabbi Cantor,
Rebbetzin Kedma Cantor and their four
children, all between 16 and 25, packed
their van and drove across the United
States. Cantor begins his new role at
Beth El, a Conservative congregation
with 211 member families, on July 1.

“It felt kind of like home,” he said of
his February visit to the synagogue’s
lower Bucks County locale.

During that weekend, Cantor met
with temple offi cials, spoke at Beth
El’s Hebrew school, talked to diff erent
synagogue groups and led services. He
found the congregants to be lively, cor-
dial and curious, as well as unafraid to
ask questions about their priorities, his
values and his vision.

Th e rabbi, though, didn’t have to ask
the members about their values. Th ose
were made clear to him throughout the
three-day visit.

“Th is notion of, I’ve become a better
person by being involved in the com-
munity, and I want to give back by
making this community even better,”
he said.

Cantor saw that Beth El off ered a
well-established internal structure.

Th ere were “committees and commit-
tees and committees” for initiatives
like adult education and social action.

Th ere were also twice-daily minyans
and great uses for community space,
24 Congregation Beth El in Yardley
Photo by Alan Gilbert Photography
the rabbi explained.

Additionally, though the synagogue
does not off er a preschool, it does have
a bar and bat mitzvah program and a
religious school with 50 students.

In an institution that already func-
tions well, the rabbi believes he can
focus on what he’s good at — playing a
more therapeutic role where he tries to
talk to each member regularly. Cantor
once studied to leave the rabbinate and
become a family therapist. But he real-
ized halfway through the program that
his listening ear was best used in a shul.

“My highest priority is being there
for the congregant,” the rabbi said.

“Th ere’s nothing so important in a
book that can’t be set aside when some-
one walks in the door.”
But it was not just Beth El that was
perfect for Cantor. It was Yardley, too.

Cantor, 51, is from Winnipeg,
Canada, and he said the architec-
tural style in the Bucks County town
reminded him of his childhood home.

During that February visit, he ate on
Main Street with Beth El leaders at
“lovely local restaurants.”
Cantor realized that he could aff ord
to buy a home in the area, too. His
Yardley house will have a forest, a
farm and a river within a mile, he said.

He also mentioned that he liked an
oft -cited quality of the Philadelphia
suburbs: If you are looking for a city
experience, both Philadelphia and New
York are just a day trip away.

“We wanted to live the American
JUNE 23, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Rabbi David Cantor
Courtesy of Rabbi David Cantor
dream and own a little bit of paradise,”
Cantor said.

Th e rabbi is talking like a man who
is ready to settle down somewhere,
and that’s the type of leader Beth El is
looking for as well. Out of the temple’s
last three rabbis, one of whom was
interim, none stayed longer than seven
years, according to Mindy Albuck, the
synagogue’s vice president.

Candidates were honest with Albuck,
who chaired the search committee,
during this most recent hiring process.

Th ey viewed the small synagogue as a
career stepping stone.

Th e longtime member was not mad;
she understood. But she quickly real-
ized that Beth El needed someone
diff erent than the well-published, big
personality, good talker archetype that
kept walking through the door.

Someone like Cantor, in other words.

“It was clear that he wants to make
personal connections and get to know
people,” Albuck said. “He’s not a per-
former.” Beth El congregants oft en get
together outside of the synagogue, too.

Albuck thinks Cantor will fi t right into
that culture.

“Th e relationships are kind of long.

Th e people stay around long. We’re
just not a transient type of group,” she
said. JE
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com