synagogue spotlight
What’s happening at ... Congregation B’nai Israel Ohev Zedek
Orthodox Synagogue Reaches
Century Mark
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
C ongregation B’nai Israel Ohev
Zedek in Philadelphia turned
100 on May 22.

Yet the Orthodox synagogue is “a very
young shul now,” said Michael Bohm, a
member since 1976.

What Bohm means is that, among
roughly 125 congregants, about 40 are
young families who have joined in recent
years. The longtime member estimated
that all of the 50 to 60 kids in the syna-
gogue are younger than 8.

At a time when shuls are struggling
to retain membership and attract new
members, Congregation B’nai Israel
Ohev Zedek is “vital with young fami-
lies,” Bohm said.

The longtime member attributed
the healthy state of affairs to the syna-
gogue’s young rabbi, Yehoshua Yeamans,
36. Since his 2015 hiring, Yeamans has
worked hard at reaching young, Jewishly-
oriented families and convincing them to
join the B’nai Israel Ohev Zedek com-
munity. “He’s a man with great drive and
vision,” Bohm said. “He’s very person-
able. And to people moving in, he made
them feel very much at home.”
Yeamans, a Scarsdale, New York,
native, earned his rabbinical ordination
in Pikesville, Maryland, then served Beth
Israel Synagogue in Edmonton, Alberta,
in Canada. But he knew the Philadelphia
area because he often visited with his
wife, Sarah Yeamans, who grew up in the
Northeast and graduated from the Torah
Academy Girls High School.

As the rabbi explained, he understood
the lay of the land, the nature of the
people and the rabbis in the area, and he
liked them all. So when he got the chance
to come to Philadelphia, he went for it.

Rabbi Aaron Felder, who led B’nai
Israel Ohev Zedek for more than 30
years, died in May 2014 at 70, accord-
ing to a Jewish Exponent obituary that
year. The Orthodox shul had a gener-
ational congregation of people around
Bohm’s age. It needed a new, and perhaps
younger, leader.

28 MAY 26, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Yeamans became that leader.

“It was a moment of transition for the
synagogue,” he said.

At the time, B’nai Israel Ohev Zedek
was already an amalgamation of three
different Philadelphia synagogues: B’nai
Israel, dating to 1922; Ohev Zedek, which
opened in 1889; and B’nai Halberstam,
founded in 1886.

When Bohm’s generation joined, the
longtime member explained, older con-
gregants told them they were giving
them a gift — and to make the most of it.

In the mid and late-2010s when Yeamans
started, it was Bohm’s generation that got
to do the giving.

“It was the same thing,” he said.

But it may not have worked with-
out Yeamans, who started spreading the
word among the Philadelphia Jewish
community. Except he did not limit him-
self to the immediate area. He also went
up to the Orthodox Union’s annual relo-
cation festival in New York City.

At that event, young Jewish families go
searching for a community. And for a few
years, Yeamans was there to proselytize
about his beloved new home.

He talked to people, gave out materi-
als and convinced many to relocate to
Philadelphia. Bohm can’t say exactly how
many families joined from those events,
but he attributed at least part of the syna-
gogue’s recent growth to them.

“In New York, nobody would know if
you died,” Bohm said. “Here, you can get in
on the ground level and make an impact.”
Yeamans’ pitch worked because of his
sincerity, his smile and the twinkle in
his eye, Bohm said. The rabbi listened to
people and paid attention to their needs.

He also shared his vision for the syna-
gogue and made them feel like they could
contribute. Today, they are.

The young shul has a mommy-and-me
program as well as programs for children
on Shabbat, among other activities for
kids. On May 19, the synagogue brought
in a moon bounce for the under-8 crew.

“It’s more just letting people know
what’s here,” Yeamans said of his
pitch to families. “The community
sells itself. It’s a community filled with
Rebbetzin Sarah Yeamans and Rabbi Yehoshua Yeamans
Congregation B’nai Israel Ohev Zedek has gotten younger in recent years.

Courtesy of Congregation B’nai Israel Ohev Zedek
wholesome, genuine people.”
On May 22, congregants sat for brunch
and celebrated the synagogue’s 100th
birthday with a video tribute to members
who have made aliyah over the years —
a list that, according to Yeamans, is 45
strong. “The story of our synagogues which
merged into what we have today really
shows the unique strength and spirit to
perpetuate the community,” the rabbi
said. Moving forward, he wants to do more
of the same.

He said members are starting to see
B’nai Israel Ohev Zedek as a place that,
even at 100, will continue “to be here
for a long time.” The rabbi described
the shul as “very centrally located” for
Orthodox Jews in New York; Lakewood,
New Jersey; and Baltimore, in addition to
Philadelphia. “There’s a lot of optimism right now,”
he concluded. JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com



d’var torah
LEGAL DIRECTORY
The Complicated
Matter of Reward
and Punishment
BY RABBI JASON BONDER
T Parshat B’Chukotai
he message of this week’s
Torah portion, B’chukotai, is
straightforward. If you listen
to God’s laws, you will be rewarded. If
you don’t keep God’s laws, you will be
punished. I’ve found, as I suspect you have,
that the conditional statements in this
Torah portion do not match up with
the realities of life. As Rabbi Harold
Kushner famously put it, “Bad things
happen to good people.” Th e reverse is
also true. Good things happen to bad
people. Given this incongruity, can we still
fi nd meaning in this week’s Torah por-
tion? I hope so for the sake of our col-
lective future.

One crucial step toward making
meaning out of this Torah portion is to
take note of whom God is addressing
in this portion. In the paragraph above,
I was talking to “you.” But in writing
this article I am, of course, hoping
to address more than one individual.

Th e same is true for this week’s por-
tion. Th e beginning of the portion is
translated, “If you walk in my laws and
keep my commandments …” But the
verbs “walk” and “keep” in the Hebrew
are in the plural. God is not address-
ing individuals in this portion. Rather,
God is addressing the people of Israel
collectively. I used to read these promises of
divine reward and punishment on
the level of the individual, and that
seriously hindered my ability to fi nd
meaning in them. Yet I don’t attribute
my mistaken reading to a translation
error. I read it this way in the past
because I am the product of our time,
our place and the culture in which we
live. We live in a highly individualistic
society. We tend to see the world in
terms of “me” instead of “we.” Th is is a
serious problem.

Whenever I read this portion, I
always think back to the times of my
chaplaincy internship at the Hospital
of the University of Pennsylvania. All
too oft en, as I went room to room vis-
iting patients in the hospital, I heard
the following question from patients.

“What could I have possibly done to
deserve this?”
It broke my heart to see people
unnecessarily harboring guilt in their
hearts, especially while they were
already suff ering so much. Seeing this
week’s portion through the “me” lens
is part of the reason why so many
of us think that suff ering comes as
punishment for breaking God’s laws
and commandments. Understanding
that these punishments and rewards in
B’Chukotai are not meant for individu-
als can help us to break free from this
guilt when suff ering arises in our lives.

Th is shift from the individual to the
communal view can be helpful, but it
does not solve all of the problems in
this portion. I can’t accept the theology
that people are collectively punished
for their sins either.

Th e people of Ukraine are just the
latest example in an endless list of
nations that have unnecessarily suf-
fered. God is not punishing Ukraine.

Th ey are suff ering because Putin chose
to infl ict harm. Similarly, countries
that experience drought or famine are
not being punished for breaking divine
rules. Th ey are suff ering from terri-
ble weather patterns or failures of our
global community to get supplies to
that region.

I do not believe in a God that chooses
to punish some individuals and reward
others. Nor does the God I believe in
punish some nations and lift up others.

Nevertheless, the shift from the indi-
vidual to the collective is a move that
we need now more than ever.

Too oft en in our society, when we
encounter arguments with which we
disagree, we dismiss it entirely. We
choose the convenience of a “me” world-
view over the diffi culty of understand-
ing views unlike our own.

For many years, this is exactly what I
did while reading this Torah portion. I
rejected the theology of B’Chukotai on
behalf of all those who unnecessarily
suff er. But that is the kind of behavior
that has gotten us to where we are in
our “me-centered” society right now.

Only three portions ago, back in
Kedoshim, we read the famous words
from Leviticus 19:17-18, “You shall
not hate your kinsfolk in your heart.

Reprove your kinsman but incur no
guilt because of him.” B’chukotai rein-
forces this commandment by remind-
ing us that our future not only depends
on the actions of individuals. We share
our future with everyone. We share it
even with the people who think diff er-
ently than we do.

In this moment in American his-
tory, this Torah portion presents an
opportunity for us to sharpen the skills
which can move our society from “me”
to “we.” Can we read the ancient worl-
dview of B’Chukotai, disagree with
it and still fi nd meaning within it? I
hope we can. Th e future of our society
depends on it.

Th is week I will let those plural verbs
remind me that I am a part of many
communities and that all of us who
make up this society are in desperate
need of a willingness to fi nd meaning
in points of view not shared. JE
Rabbi Jason Bonder is the associate
rabbi of Congregation Beth Or in Maple
Glen. Th e Board of Rabbis of Greater
Philadelphia is proud to provide diverse
perspectives on Torah commentary
for the Jewish Exponent. Th e opin-
ions 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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