synagogue spotlight
Congregation Temple Beth’El Continues
Original Rabbi’s Legacy
Jarrad Saffren | Staff Writer
D 28
MAY 25, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
Rabbis Earl and Debra Bowen
Beth’El’s website, Dailey grew up in a
Baptist home where her father, a minis-
ter, gathered “the men of the commu-
nity” for Saturday Bible study. The
future rabbi’s family salted its meats
before cooking them, covered mirrors
and sat in dark rooms for seven days
after deaths in the family and refrained
from work and play on their Sabbath,
which was Sunday.

As an adult, Dailey moved from
Annapolis to Philadelphia to work as
“a domestic in a Jewish home,” accord-
ing to that same website section. She
noticed that the family was observing
the Sabbath and keeping kosher. It
reminded her of her childhood. Dailey
felt a connection, started praying and
began to practice those same rituals.

As a 2017 Jewish Exponent article on
Beth’El explained, Dailey did not believe
the connections were coincidental. In
her father’s era, “many were rejecting
Christianity as a slave religion.” When
Dailey’s father died and was buried in a
family plot, Bowen noticed that many of
the surrounding tombstones had Stars
of David on them.

It was this connection that motivated
Rabbi L.E. Dailey was the founder of Congregation Temple Beth’El on
Lowber Avenue.

Dailey to start a Jewish prayer group in
her living room, according to Beth’El’s
website. It grew into Congregation
Temple Beth’El. Dailey traveled to nearly
every state to spread her message,
according to her daughter.

“Eventually many of them moved
to Philly and became members of
our community,” Debra Bowen said.

“As a result of slavery, every Black
person that came to this country were
converted to Christianity. It sort of begs
the question, what was our faith before
we were converted? We were all indoc-
trinated in Christianity. Slaves cannot
make choices.”
That belief may have drawn people
in, but it was the spirituality and commu-
nity that kept them coming back. Hope
Pleasant, who lives around the corner
from the synagogue, remains a member
even though it was her mother, at age
16, who originally joined.

“I love the worship. I love the energy,”
she said.

Tangela McClam, who lives in South
Jersey, has been a member for more
than 30 years. She said that when
you miss a Shabbat or two, someone
always calls to say they missed you. If
you’ve had a baby, another member is
going to come to your house to help
you out.

“It goes from small, mundane, every-
day things to bigger events, life events,
birth of children, things like that,”
McClam said.

Margaret Sunners, a white woman
from Framingham, Massachusetts,
belongs to Congregation Temple Beth’El
even though she’s also a member at a
synagogue near her home. Sunners and
her husband, James, met some Beth’El
congregants when they attended a
service at a Black synagogue during a
trip to Chicago.

They had started talking during the
Oneg Shabbat, and it made Sunners
realize that she was tired of going to
synagogues where people “don’t even
nod to each other.” The couple took
a trip to Philly, attended a service and
enjoyed the music and singing.

“I never saw such a spiritual commu-
nity in my life,” she said. “We kept
coming back.” ■
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com Photo by Rachel Kurland
ebra Bowen was not origi-
nally a rabbi. As her profile
on Congregation Temple
Beth’El’s website explains, she earned
her degree in accounting from Temple
University, worked for the Internal
Revenue Service and General Electric
and helped her mother start a day care
center for underprivileged children in
North Philadelphia.

But after years of study under her
mother, Rabbi L.E. Dailey, Bowen
“received her ordination,” according to
the site. In 2001, when Dailey died,
Bowen was chosen to take over leader-
ship of the synagogue that her mother
shepherded for 50 years: Congregation
Temple Beth’El.

Today, the synagogue on Lowber
Avenue in West Oak Lane still fills up
for Shabbat services with members
who are ready to submit themselves
to prayer. Bowen leads the community
with her husband, Earl Bowen, also
a rabbi after spending his career in
another field, academia. Earl Bowen
was ordained in 2011.

Their community consists primar-
ily of Black congregants, but also
Puerto Ricans, Native Americans and
Ashkenazi Jews. Congregation Temple
Beth’El was founded on one of Dailey’s
guiding beliefs: that African Americans
were descendants of Abraham, though
they made no exclusive claim to that
heritage. “We were Israelites. The Jewish faith
originated as an Afro-Asian orienta-
tion. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were
of Afro-Asian heritage,” Debra Bowen
said. “We understand that this is our
heritage. However, we do not claim it
as uniquely ours because Judaism has
spread all over the world.”
“People say, ‘How could you be a
Jew? I say, ‘How could we not?’” she
added. According to a section about her on



calendar
MAY 26–JUNE 1
F R I DAY, MAY 26
MUSICAL KABBALAT SHABBAT
BazziBa/ AdobeStock
Join Beth Sholom Congregation’s Rabbi David Glanzberg-Krainin,
Cantor Jacob Agar and the band at 6 p.m. for a musical Kabbalat Shabbat.

The community is welcome to attend. Call 215-887-1342 for information.

8231 Old York Road, Elkins Park.

FRIDAY, M AY 26
MONDAY, MAY 2 9
David Harris and Alvin Gilens met in
Israel in 1965 and bonded instantly
over their mutual love for Israel and
for photography. The photographs
displayed in this Temple Judea Museum
exhibition through June 30 attest to
their friendship and their talent for
capturing the land and its people.

For more information, contact
tjmuseum@kenesethisrael.org or
215-887-8700. 8339 Old York Road,
Elkins Park.

Melrose B’nai Israel Emanu-EL
Sisterhood invites the community to
join our weekly mahjong game at 7
p.m. Cost is $36 per year or free with
MBIEE Sisterhood membership. For
more information, call 215-635-1505
or email office@mbiee.org.

8339 Old York Road, Elkins Park.

DAVID AND ME
PARSHA FOR LIFE
Join Rabbi Alexander Coleman, a
Jewish educator and psychotherapist
at the Institute for Jewish Ethics, at
9 a.m. for a journey through the
Torah portion of the week with eternal
lessons on personal growth and
spirituality. Go to ijethics.org/
weekly-torah-portion.html to receive
the Zoom link and password.

MAHJONG GAME
THUR SDAY, JU N E 1
SISTERHOOD TORAH FUND TEA
Melrose B’Nai Israel Emanu-EL
Sisterhood will host a Torah Fund Tea
for Two honoring Catalina Krushner and
Sharon Sussman beginning at 2 p.m.

For more information, contact
office@mbiee.org or 215-635-1505.

8339 Old York Road, Elkins Park.

CANASTA GAME
Ohev Shalom of Bucks County
Sisterhood invites the community to
a weekly canasta game from 1-3 p.m.

Open play is $4. Call 215-968-6755
for more information. 944 Second
Street Pike, Richboro. ■
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 29