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What’s happening at ... Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El
Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El Starts
New Era with Rabbi Installation
Weekend R
abbi Marshall Maltzman
served as the spiritual leader of
Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El in
Wynnewood from 1961 to 1991. Th en
Rabbi Neil Cooper served in the same
role from ’91 until this summer.

So when Rabbi Ethan Witkovsky
replaced Cooper in June, he became
just the third spiritual leader in the
congregation’s 61-year history. Th at’s a
moment worth celebrating, according
to temple leaders. And over the week-
end of Nov. 11, they will.

Witkovsky’s “installation weekend”
will be a moment of communal “ded-
ication,” he said. Th e synagogue’s 700-
plus households are invited to observe
the new leader “become installed” on
Sunday in the sanctuary.

In addition to the ceremony, the
weekend will include a Shabbat service
on Friday night with a dinner and two
talks — one by Arnold Eisen, the former
chancellor of the Jewish Th eological
Seminary, and another by Rabbi Elliot
J. Cosgrove, the senior rabbi at Park
Avenue Synagogue in New York City,
where Witkovsky worked for the past
eight years.

“It’s less about me and more about
the community,” Witkovsky said. “It’s
giving us a good reason to have every-
one come out.”
Aft er two-plus years of COVID,
restrictions and Zoom services, it’s also
a way of “reminding everybody that
we’re here,” he added.

“We want to get everyone excited
about the strength and how good the
community really is,” he said. “And
then we’re going to set up where things
are going to go in the future.”
Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El President
Barbara Bookman explained that the
installation weekend will emphasize
the synagogue’s “shared history” and
“future.” And there is no future with-
out funding. Th at is why, in addition to
the festivities, the weekend will serve
as a launching point for a “seeds cam-
paign.” As Bookman put it, the Main Line
temple is going to raise money and
plant trees.

“Our seeds campaign is planting the
roots for our future where we can
fl ourish and grow,” she added. “It’s a
campaign that will help with fi nancial
stability for the future of our congre-
gation.” “We’re looking to grow in a lot of
wonderful ways with Rabbi Witkovsky,”
Bookman said.

Synagogue leaders do not have a spe-
cifi c number in mind. Th e new rabbi
said “the sky’s the limit,” and the presi-
dent, a member of 39 years, added, “It’s
all good.”
Once they start raising money,
Witkovsky, Bookman and other lead-
ers hope to continue the momen-
tum toward a strategic plan process.

Bookman said that members have
known that a new plan was necessary,
but they wanted to wait until they hired
a new rabbi.

Now though, the process should
begin this winter. To start, synagogue
offi cials will gather a group of con-
gregants into a committee to lead
the process. Th en it will hold general
meetings and meetings with “diff er-
ent constituency groups,” as Bookman
described them, to discuss issues and
brainstorm ideas.

“Talk about what we think is needed,”
Bookman said.

Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El had
about 600 households when Cooper
took over in 1991. By the time he
announced his retirement in August
2021, that number had grown to 700.

Today it’s even higher, according to
Bookman and Witkovsky. Th e rabbi
also mentioned that there’s a “relatively
even split of young families, families
with high school- and school-aged kids
and whatever the right names are for
the generations above that.”
Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El members outside of their sukkah in Wynnewood
Rabbi Ethan Witkovsky
Th e temple’s Early Childhood Center
has 133 students, and Witkovsky
described it as “bursting at the seams.”
Religious school enrollment is 160 stu-
dents, the highest number in four or
fi ve years, he said.

Anecdotally, the synagogue also has
“a lot of people who are volunteering
and coming out,” Bookman said.

“It is growing a lot,” Witkovsky said.

“We’re very excited, and we need to
plan for the future in an intentional
way.” Th ose intentions, though, are not yet
clear. Right now, Temple Beth Hillel-
Beth El has a plan to make a plan, but
that’s really it.

Bookman and Witkovsky identifi ed
no major issues that the synagogue
needs to address. Th ey believe that
core focus areas will emerge from the
conversations they have with members
during the planning process.

As Bookman said at the time of
Cooper’s retirement announcement,
“We have a thriving synagogue in a
diffi cult time for Conservative syna-
gogues.” But the time is nonetheless
diffi cult, so maybe that’s the challenge.

In the hybrid service era, with the
less religious generations of millenni-
als and Gen Zers in their primes, how
can a synagogue convince people to
come out?
“People are looking for a community
that cares about them,” Witkovsky said
aft er his hiring in February. JE
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 27
Courtesy of Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER