synagogue spotlight
What’s happening at ... Beth Chaim Reform Congregation
Beth Chaim Reform Congregation
Continues to Grow
I n 1992, “a handful” of Jewish
families in Chester County were
looking for a spiritual “home,”
according to the history section on
Beth Chaim Reform Congregation’s
website. So, they put an ad in the news-
paper about an event they would hold
for other like-minded families — and
60 people showed up.

On that day, Beth Chaim Reform
Congregation was born, and people
kept showing up. For 15 years, they
spent their Shabbats in the Church of
the Loving Shepherd in West Chester.

Beth Chaim Rabbi Michelle Pearlman
explained that congregants would
“bring the Torah in” on Friday nights,
as the church did not need its barn
sanctuary until Sunday.

In 2007, the growing congrega-
tion moved into its current home on
Conestoga Road in Malvern. Over the
next 15 years, despite membership
declines at many synagogues and the
impact of COVID-19, Beth Chaim con-
tinued to grow by about 2-3% per year,
according to President Alex Scherer.

Today the membership base includes
around 220 households.

Scherer said the congregation has
two major advantages.

“One is that we’re the only Reform
synagogue in Chester County,” he
explained. “No. 2, we have the luxury
of having the best rabbi on Earth.”
Beth Chaim may attract people by
serving as the only Reform option in
the Philadelphia area’s westernmost
county, but it keeps them coming back
with the members already there.

When Beth Chaim congregants used
to gather in the church barn, diff erent
people had to “schlep stuff in and out,”
Pearlman said.

“Th ey had to work hard to create a
community. Th at’s the DNA. Th at con-
tinues now,” she added.

Th e other day, according to Pearlman,
a member just picked up a vacuum
cleaner and started cleaning the fl oor.

On the Friday before Rosh Hashanah
24 this year, the rabbi discovered that the
stairs leading down to the creek behind
the synagogue building were rotted.

Th ere would be no way to hold the
Tashlich service on the water.

But over that weekend, a congregant
bought wood, drove to the temple and
fi xed the stairs. He fi nished the project
15 minutes before Beth Chaim’s Rosh
Hashanah under the stars service on
the holiday’s fi rst night. Th ey would be
ready for Tashlich the next day.

“You lead by example,” Scherer said.

“Families help each other out.”
About a dozen founding families
remain in Beth Chaim’s congregation,
according to Scherer. But the rest of the
membership base is younger.

When Pearlman joined the syna-
gogue in 2014, she added adult edu-
cation classes and organized trips to
Israel and Eastern Europe. Th e new
activities attracted “folks who have had
their families and want to be part of
their community,” she said.

“Th ey join for the opportunity for
friendship and spiritual nourishment
and adult education,” she added.

But families with younger children
have also joined. Th ey like the religious
school, according to Pearlman, which
has 70 students and a project-based
approach to learning.

Beth Chaim’s congregation is bal-
anced across age brackets, according to
Scherer. Robin Resnick, the executive
administrator, is like Scherer in that
she credits Pearlman for that.

“Everybody loves Rabbi Pearlman,”
Resnick said. “She is a big attraction.”
Pearlman is, as synagogue leaders
like to say, “warm and welcoming”
in meetings with prospective congre-
gants and dynamic on stage. As Scherer
explained, “Every time someone meets
with us and sits for a service and hears
her, they want to join.”
Th e rabbi brushed off this praise and
tried to give herself little, if any, credit.

She said that she just tries to keep
the fun going at synagogue — like on
Yom Kippur this year when the temple
brought in goats. Th e idea was that it
was hard to admit that you were wrong,
NOVEMBER 10, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Rabbi Michelle Pearlman started at Beth Chaim Reform Congregation in
Malvern in 2014.

Beth Chaim Reform Congregation in Malvern brought in goats this year for
a Yom Kippur activity.

but that it would be easier to whisper it
into the ear of a goat.

Or on Chanukah during COVID
when Beth Chaim transformed the hol-
iday into an outdoor festival of lights.

Kids made papier-mache lanterns and
hung them around the premises. And
each night for every new candle, the
community built a bonfi re to keep
warm. It’s a tradition that continues today.

“Th e community loved it,” Resnick
said. Scherer joined Beth Chaim the same
year that Pearlman started, in 2014. He
was invited by a neighbor who himself
had joined the previous year. When
Scherer arrived at his fi rst event, a
Sukkot picnic on the synagogue lawn,
he felt “very, very comfortable,” he
recalled. Days later, the Scherer family
attended their fi rst service. Th eir three
young kids, naturally, were talking
and carrying on, but nobody “shushed
them,” the father said.

“I learned that the rabbi had insti-
tuted a no-shushing role,” he added. JE
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
Photo by Evan Gordon
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER