synagogue spotlight
What’s happening at ... Congregation Tifereth Israel
Congregation Tifereth Israel Gathering
Again in Bensalem Sanctuary
O n Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur this year,
Congregation Tifereth Israel
in Bensalem set up 140 seats.

Sixty-two percent of members said
they planned on coming into the build-
ing for the High Holidays, but syna-
gogue President Jacki Cohen still wasn’t
sure what to expect.

She thought the temple might be “out
of sight, out of mind” for people in the
wake of COVID. Th ey had spent so
much time away and doing services on
Zoom. But on the fi rst day of Rosh Hashanah
“we were fi lled to capacity,” CTI Rabbi
Jeff Schnitzer said. Th en on Yom Kippur,
the main service of the day was “stand-
ing-room only,” he added.

“I think the need for people to recon-
nect aft er being separated for so long;
I think it is a prime motivation,” the
rabbi said.

Before COVID, Congregation Tifereth
Israel’s membership base dropped from
250 to less than 130, according to con-
gregants. But over the past two-and-a-
half years, it has gone back up a little.

In August 2020, the building
reopened aft er a fi ve-month pandemic
closure, and CTI’s nursery school had
24 kids. For the 2022-’23 school year,
it is up to 100. Many of them are from
non-Jewish Bensalem families who just
Cindy Citron, Congregation Tifereth
Israel’s educational director, has
seen school enrollments increase
in recent years.

need a preschool, but their enrollment
nonetheless helps the temple, explained
Cindy Citron, its educational director.

Citron also mentioned that in 2017,
CTI’s Hebrew school had maybe 10 or
12 students. Today, though, it is up to 48.

“It’s growing,” she said. “And most of
the kids in the Hebrew school right now
came through the preschool. So the pre-
school does serve as a feeder.”
Congregants also have started to
come back out for Shabbat. CTI’s hybrid
services, in person and on Zoom, can
draw 30 or more people, according to
Cohen. Schnitzer, 67, a Levittown resident,
joined the synagogue in 1979 as a mem-
ber, staying until 1985. Th en he came
Congregation Tifereth Israel’s sanctuary
32 OCTOBER 20, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
back in 1995 as a congregant in time for
his daughter’s bat mitzvah. Finally, in
1998, he became the temple’s spiritual
leader. He believes that, over all of that time,
the synagogue has felt like a family.

When he’s talking to a prospective con-
gregant, Schnitzer explains that mem-
bers “fi ght like family,” he said. But then
he says that, “When something hap-
pens, we celebrate and grieve together.”
It’s this feeling that has kept Tifereth
Israel alive, according to the rabbi. It’s
also a desire for this feeling that is bring-
ing some new people in post-COVID.

Going shopping or to an event can
create connections with other people.

But it’s not quite the same as going to
synagogue together, Schnitzer said. “It’s
not a personal kind of connection that
you get in a synagogue like ours,” he
said. “We look at our community as
family and not as members.”
Among existing members, there’s an
intergenerational quality to the com-
munity. Schnitzer’s daughter Rebecca
is now a Hebrew school teacher at CTI.

Cohen, a member for 33 years, has a
daughter, Julie Miller, who is on the
board, as well as two grandkids who are
in the Hebrew school.

“I want them to grow up in the con-
gregation,” she said. “I fully expect that
that will happen.”
Sherry Saks, a congregant since 1988,
also has grandchildren who are in
school at the synagogue. In her time
at Tifereth Israel, she’s served on the
board, as co-president of the Parent-
Teacher Organization, in the Sisterhood
and even in the gift shop.

Saks is motivated to help the syn-
agogue because she loves it, but also
because she does not want to see it
close. Even with the recent increases
in enrollments for the nursery and
Hebrew schools, she is worried that
CTI is not gaining enough new families.

She thinks that younger generations
don’t care as much about religious prac-
tice and Jewish institutions, and while
the congregant numbers have gone up
slightly in recent years, the numbers
bear her out.

At the smaller High Holiday ser-
vices, like on the second day of Rosh
Hashanah and on Kol Nidre, Saks did
not see many young families. She also
said that “that’s been going on for years,
and it hasn’t really changed much.”
“It’s not the same as it used to be,” she
added. “And that breaks my heart.”
But while Saks and another member,
Renee Feder, may be concerned, they
were still able to look around during
High Holiday services this year and see
a crowd. During the blowing of the sho-
far, Feder looked behind her at all of the
people and started to cry.

“Th ere were people. It was diff erent,”
she said, comparing it to Zoom. “Very
diff erent.” JE
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
Congregation Tifereth Israel on Bristol Road in Bensalem
Photos by Jarrad Saff ren
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER