synagogue spotlight
What’s happening at ... Congregation Beth Israel
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
Beth Israel Focuses
on Anti-racism
C ongregation Beth Israel, a
Reconstructionist synagogue
in Media, has focused on
social justice in its community activity
for years.

But in 2020 after the murder of
George Floyd in Minneapolis, the tem-
ple clarified its mission to emphasize
anti-racism. Beth Israel hosted an anti-racism
summit in January; this spring, sum-
mer and fall, it’s holding a book study
on an Ibram X. Kendi title; through-
out this year, synagogue leaders are
starting an adult education class on
anti-racism. And big picture, they are
examining their policies and research-
ing which organizations in the com-
munity they can support.

“We’ve been working hard on
anti-racism,” said Emma Lefkowitz,
the president of Beth Israel’s board of
directors. Lefkowitz and Rabbi Linda Potemken
have an activist-oriented congregant
base of about 160 families; and the
leaders want to motivate members to
target their activism toward anti-racist
efforts. They say it’s in line with the Jewish
value of tikkun olam, or healing the
world. “What is the Jewish mission?”
Potemken said. “To walk in the world
in the image of God.”
At the small synagogue, members are
faithful, but they are not strict about
attending Shabbat services. Potemken
said 15 people on Zoom is a decent
turnout. But there’s no shortage of Beth Israel
congregants who want to help with
social justice, according to the rabbi.

And this latest development is just a
continuation of Beth Israel’s existing
mission. In the past, members have
focused their activism on food banks,
soup kitchens and on helping new
moms get supplies for their children.

Almost two decades ago, Potemken
started a program to partner with com-
44 Rabbi Nathan Martin and Rabbi Linda Potemken
An event at Congregation Beth Israel
Courtesy of Congregation Beth Israel
munities down the road, like Chester
and Marcus Hook, on social action
efforts, a program that continues to
this day.

“Beth Israel members tend to be pas-
sionate and they tend to be fighters,”
Lefkowitz said. “Everybody has some-
thing they care deeply about, and they
want to make change.”
Potemken is in her 25th year as rabbi
at Beth Israel. She joined the temple
after leading a service and teaching a
class there during rabbinical school.

She was drawn to the institution’s
“warm, down-to-Earth family feel,”
she said.

The rabbi said she had the good for-
tune to become the spiritual leader at
Beth Israel right after it bought a new
building. At that point, she started
building the community’s schedule
and congregation.

Since Beth Israel members only
met on Friday nights, Potemken
added a Saturday service and Torah
study. She also opened a Shabbat din-
ner on Friday nights and a Sabbath
MARCH 31, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
lunch on Saturdays.

“She saw it as her task to expand the
programming,” Lefkowitz said. “It was
a change that was quite welcome.”
Larry Hamermesh joined Beth
Israel with his wife 15 years ago. He
said they left their old synagogue in
Wilmington, Delaware, where they
still live, because of Potemken. They
got to know her through mutual
friends and liked her.

“She’s very approachable, enthusi-
astic and supportive of congregational
participation,” Hamermesh said.

After Potemken came on, Beth Israel
grew for about 10 years before leveling
off, and then declining a little. But
while its membership is small, it is also
steady, according to synagogue leaders.

To help Potemken lead it, the temple
hired Rabbi Nathan Martin six years
ago. Potemken wanted to reduce her
role so she could have more time to
breathe. The decision was uncomfort-
able at first, Potemken said, but after
Martin arrived, she grew to love having
a rabbinic partner.

Photo by John Greenstine
“To have a thought partner was amaz-
ing,” she said. “Communities resist
change. We’ve benefited from it. Two
rabbinic voices, styles and energies.”
After the pandemic broke out,
Martin led the pivot to virtual services.

The new rabbi also motivated syna-
gogue leaders to start the process of
adding solar panels to the building in
the coming years.

Potemken made it clear that she sees
Martin as her successor when she even-
tually retires.

“When I retire, it won’t be the shock
that most communities get,” she said.

Lefkowitz thinks the synagogue can
be as sustainable as Martin’s solar pan-
els. A new member joined just last
week, she said. Plus, at hybrid ser-
vices, people are joining from as far as
Vermont, Oregon and Florida.

“When you come into the building,
you feel like you’re coming into a com-
munity you’ve been in your whole life,”
she said. JE
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com



d’var torah
Torah Applies to Modern-day
Circumstances BY RABBI PETER RIGLER
I Parshat Tazriah
never imagined it! Th ey used to
come into my offi ce when I handed
the b’nai mitzvah students the
Torah portion of Tazriah, and I could
see disappointment.

“Really?” one student said, “Some
kids get Noah, and I get this stuff about
skin disease?”
In Leviticus 13, we read, “And the
LORD spoke unto Moses and unto
Aaron, saying: When a man shall have
in the skin of his fl esh a rising, or a
scab, or a bright spot, and it becomes
in the skin of his fl esh the plague of
tzaraat, then he shall be brought unto
Aaron the priest, or unto one of his
sons the priests.”
A beloved colleague tells the story that
the only time someone was happy when
they saw Tazriah was when it turned out
the parents were dermatologists.

Our perspectives can shift and the
meaning of our text adjusts with it! Th is
portion will never be read the same
way again! What student would want to
embrace a portion about disease?
Th is portion grapples not only with
the disease known as tzaraat, oft en
mistranslated as leprosy, but also with
the societal behaviors in response. An
acknowledgment that disease can be
scary not just for the person who is ill
but for those who live with and near
them who don’t understand what is hap-
pening. Th e symptoms are described in
detail — really graphic detail!
What’s described is leprosy, skin
affl ictions, anything from eczema or
psoriasis to deep infections. It was
actually the priest who would diag-
nose and determine if the person had
to be quarantined, was actually clean
enough to stay in the community and
how/when they could return.

I could never have imagined the
moment that happened for an upcom-
ing b’nai mitzvah student who said,
“Rabbi, I got the most important por-
tion!” Th ey explained that the portion
Tazriah felt relevant in the wake of
Our Torah portion considers, in a
cutting edge way for the time it was
written, how not to cast people aside
when they are sick.

the pandemic.

What my student realized was that
the Torah was struggling with the same
things we are today.

Th ink about the central questions we
are experiencing: How are our leaders
protecting exposure? Is there a connec-
tion between materialism over matters
of health? Does the individual or needs
of the community come fi rst? How are
the needs of those who live on the mar-
gins of our society being addressed?
How do we look at those who are
in the center of the storm including
health workers, teachers, deliverers
and leaders?
Our Torah portion considers, in a
cutting edge way for the time it was
written, how not to cast people aside
when they are sick, how to create safety
and care for the larger community and
how to lead through such a crisis.

Take just one example about the
communal need to care for others.

Th e Talmud reminds us when con-
sidering these verses, one calls out
their infected status not only to warn
others of the contagion but also to elicit
compassion and prayers on one’s behalf
(BT Moed Katan 5a). It is the responsi-
bility of the aff ected person to isolate,
ask for help, social-distance, and it is
the responsibility of the community to
off er the support, prayer and ultimately
whatever assistance was possible. No
one should be isolated more than nec-
essary for as much as the individual
suff ers, so does the community.

Whatever the cause of the separation
from community, it was the priest who
would tend to the individual and help
determine when they could return.

It is precisely because we come back
to Torah text so oft en that in it we con-
stantly fi nd wisdom. Th is is even more
true as our world and lives change like
this reading of Tazriah. A disciple of
Rabbi Hillel’s known as Ben Bag-Bag
said the following: “Turn it, and turn
it, for everything is in it. Refl ect on it
and grow old and gray with it. Don’t
turn from it, for nothing is better than
it (Mishnah Pirkei Avot 5:22).

Our tradition is built on this model.

We return to the text activating prior
knowledge and holding new experi-
ences so that we can gain new under-
standings. We are not alone as life
brings new challenges — we have the
wisdom of Torah to hold and guide
us! JE
Rabbi Peter Rigler is the rabbi at Temple
Sholom in Broomall. Th e Board of
Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia is proud
to provide diverse perspectives on Torah
commentary for the Jewish Exponent.

Th e opinions expressed in this column
are the author’s own and do not refl ect
the view of the Board of Rabbis.

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