synagogue spotlight
Congregation Adath Jeshurun Searches
for New Way Forward
through.” They even added prayer
sessions that focus on how “themes
of particular songs map onto themes
of the liturgy,” as Cherry explained it.

Outside of services, Cherry has added
hiking and environmentalist groups to
the synagogue community.

“People want diff erent things,”
Levin said.

The president, the rav and the cantor,
though, were not shy about admitting
that they do not have all the answers.

They are just trying to meet people
where they are and give them choices.

And as long as there are still members
like Stutman Izes, Sussman and
Jarrad Saff ren | Staff Writer
Photo by Jarrad Saff ren
T o a woman or man, Congregation
Adath Jeshurun members seem
to enjoy walking in the doors of
their Old York Road synagogue.

“I absolutely love the people,” said
Judy Stutman Izes, 60, a congregant for
18 years.

“It’s the place I’m most comfortable,”
added Sima Sussman, 82, a member
since 1976. “It refl ects the rhythm of my
Jewish life.”
“It’s really our community,” said David
Reibstein, 48, a lifelong congregant.

But it’s a question as open as
Adath Jeshurun’s doors whether the
Conservative shul will still be there in
a generation or two. At 48, Reibstein
is one of the congregation’s young-
est members. A community that once
counted about 1,200 households is now
down to less than 400, and 80% of
them are older and without children in
the pre- and religious school programs,
according to synagogue leaders.

Rabbi Shai Cherry, Hazzan Howard
Glantz and President Howard Levin
are doing what many shuls in the
Philadelphia area are doing in this
era: trying to fi gure out how to attract
young members. Glantz believes that
Adath Jeshurun leaders at least under-
stand the approach they need to take.

Synagogues used to be able to say,
“We’re here, come meet us where
we are,” recalled the cantor, now in
his 19th year at the Elkins Park shul.

“And that’s not necessarily working for
everybody, so we want to meet them
where they are,” he added. “And be
there for them.”
“And it’s not essential that we have
50-100 people at a program for it
to be successful,” Glantz said. “You
have more time to interact and get to
know them.”
Cherry, who prefers to go by Rav Shai
because Rav is Hebrew for teacher,
stepped out of the higher education
Congregation Adath Jeshurun in
Elkins Park
world to take his fi rst pulpit position with
Adath Jeshurun in 2019. He was inher-
iting the legacy of a synagogue with
more than 160 years of history. He also
was taking on the responsibility left to
him by a trio of rabbis, Max Klein (1910-
'60), Yaakov Rosenberg (1960-'78) and
Seymour Rosenbloom (1978-2014), who
each guided Adath Jeshurun through
entire eras.

But Cherry wanted this challenge.

After three decades of teaching, he
was interested in a rabbi position at a
shul with a long history, but also with
an openness to 21st-century experi-
mentation. Then he noticed on a job
bulletin board for Conservative rabbis
that the AJ position was open. With the
synagogue going through a strategic
initiative called “AJ New Way Forward,”
it seemed like the right fi t.

Then he arrived and discovered that
East Coasters held a reverence for their
rabbi that he had not seen out west.

“They have a respect for the person of
the rabbi, the position of the rabbi, that
I was pleasantly surprised to discover,”
he said. “I think on the West Coast there
is not the same relationship that most
congregants have with their rabbi.”
From left: Hazzan Howard Glantz, Rav Shai Cherry and
President Howard Levin
But that also meant that members
were looking to the rabbi to lead AJ’s
new way forward. And over his four
years, even through COVID, he has
attempted to do that. According to
Glantz, the goal of the new strategic
plan is to give people choices.

Cherry and the cantor started
holding more “retro services” in the
Conservative tradition, with a profes-
sional choir and organ, throughout the
year. They also began to host more
Friday night services at which Glantz
played guitar and sang “all the way
Reibstein, it will be worthwhile to try.

“They do know that we hear them;
that we want to be there for them; and
that we will work for them to make their
spirituality enhanced,” Glantz said.

Cherry mentioned that, after almost
every event, two or three people will
reach out to say how much it meant
to them.

“We have a pretty good sense that
we are helping people grow religiously
and spiritually,” he concluded. ■
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
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