synagogue spotlight
After Surviving COVID, the South
Philadelphia Shtiebel Looks Ahead
Jarrad Saffren | Staff Writer
A fter becoming one of the first female
rabbis in the Orthodox denomination, Dasi
Fruchter chose South Philadelphia as the
place to build her congregation. She met with Jewish
residents of the area for a year before opening
the South Philadelphia Shtiebel, with backing from
Start-Up Shul and Hillel International, in July 2019.

Rabbanit Fruchter, as she likes to call herself,
welcomed “80 or so worshippers” into the
synagogue’s storefront home on East Passyunk
Avenue for the community’s first Shabbat service,
according to a Jewish Exponent article. The
same article described the evening as a “joyous,
foot-stomping service.” But the moment ended less
than a year later with the arrival of COVID-19.

Fruchter got COVID herself and the Shtiebel, like
other shuls, had to find creative ways to survive. But
survive it did.

The rabbanit, who came to Philadelphia from
Beth Sholom Congregation and Talmud Torah in
Maryland, remains in South Philadelphia, and now
she’s married and a homeowner. Her synagogue
remains here, too, only in a rented row home instead
of a storefront. But with more than 100 Shabbat
worshippers each week, it has grown since that
inaugural Sabbath.

“It’s going great,” Fruchter said.

When COVID hit, Shtiebel regulars could no longer
gather on Shabbat. Halachic rules do not allow for an
online gathering on the Sabbath. Fruchter and her
congregants had to wait out those early weeks apart
until they could assemble again in a field at a six-foot
distance while wearing masks.

As time marched on though, members got closer.

They gathered in a theater, a Catholic school parking
lot and a bocce court. Eventually, they took their
masks off and stood together. By the High Holidays
in 2021, almost 150 Shtiebel regulars congregated
on that bocce court. They said their prayers and the
noise floated “up to the heavens,” Fruchter said.

But even while synagogue members could not
convene for Shabbat, the shul was “never closed,”
Fruchter said. She taught a daily Talmud class
online. She hosted Kaddish services for congregants
or family members of congregants. She delivered
packages and made phone calls.

“I was trying to support people who were treading
water,” the rabbi said.

Rabbanit Dasi Fruchter
During the pandemic, some people left South
Philadelphia Shtiebel. But many of those original
members stayed. And many more, who were “hungry
for something,” as Fruchter put it, arrived. The
Shtiebel dropped to about 30 regulars during the
initial stage of COVID before growing back to 50-75
members. After securing the new space on Juniper
Street, the Shtiebel grew again.

“I believe very strongly in physical space and
what that does for our sense of rootedness and
community,” Fruchter said. “There is something
about having a place.”
The 33-year-old, female, Orthodox rabbi has her
place, and it is allowing her to give members theirs.

As a result, the base is now big enough to help
support the organization. But it remains “too fiscally
young, probably, to own,” the rabbi said.

The South Philadelphia Shtiebel receives one-third
of its funding from local support, with the rest coming
from outside grants and major gifts, according to
Fruchter. Her goal for year five is to “shift more to
local support,” she said.

Courtesy of Rabbinat Dasi Fruchter
This past Shabbat, there was a room for kids 0-3, and
another room for kids 5-7 to have a parsha discussion.

During the Kiddush lunch, a group of congregants older
than 50 was having an “intense parsha discussion,” as
Fruchter described it, with a group of members “in the
younger professional part of their lives.”
Most of the members, as is customary in Orthodox
communities, live within a mile of the synagogue so
they can walk. But people also come from Fairmount,
the Main Line and Wilmington, Delaware. There are
no schools in the synagogue yet, but Fruchter is now
thinking about a 30-year plan. For the first time since
March 2020, she feels like she has time to plan.

“The most interesting thing is that in the last month
or so, I decided that we need one,” she said.

Fruchter met her husband, Daniel Krupka, a
software engineer, at a Center City Kehillah event
during COVID. They got married and bought a house
in the past year.

“This is my place. I love it,” she said. ■
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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