synagogue spotlight
Darkaynu Continues With
15 Members
Jarrad Saff ren | Staff Writer
I 28
MARCH 16, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
Rabbi Jon Cutler founded
Darkaynu with a group of
congregants in 2009.

that religion off ers learning, spirituality, a
sense of closeness with God.”
Burstein, 74, mentioned similar reasons
for staying involved. He also off ered
another, more existential, motivation: “As
we get older, we tend to think more about
God and the afterlife, things like that.”
Both men like that Darkaynu is a
smaller, more intimate community.

When they walk in the door for Shabbat
services, they see their friends. The
congregants go out socially, too,
even when there’s no Jewish activ-
ity involved. Burstein said that, “The
people in the group really enjoy being
together.” And, according to Feingold,
“It’s a very comforting group. There’s
virtually no confrontation.”
“It’s just that we’ve known each other
for so long,” Burstein added.

All of those qualities were present
from the beginning, according to the
rabbi who started the congregation,
Jon Cutler. In 2009, Cutler had just
returned from a deployment to Iraq as
a chaplain for the Army. After serving
From left: Darkaynu lay leaders Mark Feingold and Jay Burstein
in a war zone, Iraq’s Anbar province,
Cutler wanted “a more intimate
(synagogue) community than to deal
with boards and politics.” He started
Darkaynu with people who knew him
from his previous post at Tiferet B’Nei
Israel in Warrington. Members viewed
their new community as a chavurah,
or a smaller group that still engages in
congregational activities, like services.

But the gatherings, as Cutler
described them, were “more lay-led.”
Services featured a live band with
musicians and singers. Communal
outreach projects included collections
for a local food pantry and an eff ort to
house six diff erent homeless families
in Bucks County. At the once-a-month
Shabbat dinners, people set up chairs
and provided homemade dishes. A
craftsman in the community, Harvey
Soll, built an ark from scratch. His wife
designed a Torah cover. All of the
congregants pitched in to buy a Torah
from another local synagogue.

“It was wonderful because people
had say in it,” Cutler recalled. “People
would not only commit fi nancially but
timewise.” The rabbi, though, could only make a
small salary from Darkaynu. He also had
to work for the military and for Abramson
Senior Care Hospice in Blue Bell. So, in
2015, he left to take a full-time job at Beth
Israel Congregation of Chester County.

The rabbi remains there, leading a
congregation with more than 100 house-
holds. But he still marvels from afar at
Darkaynu. He said that he wasn’t sure in
the beginning if it would last a year.

After Cutler’s departure, Darkaynu
tried to fi nd new members, according
to Feingold. But it did not have much
luck. That’s why congregants decided
to close the website. It wasn’t getting
much traffi c. But through it all, the
existing members never lost interest.

“There’s a real longing for intimacy
and community. This could be a model
for that,” Cutler said. 1
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
Courtesy of Jay Burstein
f you Google “Darkaynu,” you will
see a listing for an organization at
2040 Street Road in Warrington.

But if you click the website link and
go to darkaynu.org, you learn that the
“account has been suspended.”
A Facebook search yields a similar
result. Darkaynu has a page. But it has
less than 100 followers, and its last
post came on May 25, 2022.

But despite some evidence to the
contrary, Darkaynu is alive.

The nondenominational synagogue
remains what it pretty much has always
been — a small group that sees value
in worshipping. The community started
with 30 members in 2009, grew to
about 60 or 70 at its peak in the 2010s
and contracted back to its current total
of 15. Several of those 15 are original
congregants. All of them, just like in
2009, are empty nesters. And they
continue to meet once a month for a
Friday night Shabbat service.

“We’re a pretty cohesive group.

We’ve gotten to know each other well.

We enjoy each other’s company,” said
Mark Feingold, a longtime member
and a Doylestown resident.

In addition to the Shabbat service,
members meet once a month for a
Torah study. Both take place inside
the BuxMont Unitarian Universalist
Fellowship in Warrington, where the
synagogue rents space. But Darkaynu
does not have a rabbi. Its last one,
Rayzel Raphael, left in 2021. Now
Feingold and another member, Jay
Burstein, lead the services.

“The problem of having too small
of a group is you don’t have enough
resources over time. We could not
aff ord to keep a rabbi,” Feingold said.

But for Feingold, Burstein and others,
the small congregation, light schedule
and limited resources are not deterrents.

Feingold, 67, participates because, as
he explains, “I’m Jewish, and I believe