feature story
Area Synagogues Begin
to Make Better Use of the
Great Outdoors
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
Temple Brith Achim
members in King of Prussia
now gather for the Sabbath
in this fi eld behind the
building. Photo by Jarrad Saff ren
O utside of Har Zion Temple’s entrance on its west end, there’s a small
fi eld of grass. When you walk by, the area doesn’t look like much.

Th ere are three benches along the perimeter, but that’s about it.

Yet over the summer, the pocket park became a weekly feature of syn-
agogue life. In previous years, the Penn Valley congregation would hold
Shabbat services there in the warm months, according to Cantor Eliot
Vogel. But only about 10 people would show up.

In 2022, though, attendance increased to an average of 30 members per
week. Or, as Vogel put it, that number represented an increase of 200%.

“You have the opportunity since COVID to be inside or outside,” said
Andrea Robbins, a Har Zion member for 64 years. “You can enjoy the
peaceful landscape. It enhances our campus life.”
Har Zion’s pocket park is like many outdoor spaces at synagogues
around the Philadelphia area: It’s now being used a little more than it
was before. It’s a trend that’s diffi cult to quantify, but shul leaders seem
to know that it’s there.

During the pandemic, congregants used virtual and outdoor spaces
to still gather while protecting themselves from the airborne virus. And
much like the virtual space, the outdoor one might remain a feature of
synagogue life beyond the COVID situation.

Right now, that desire manifests itself in small ways, like an increase
from 10 to 30 people at summer services in a patch of grass. But such
gatherings and activities are happening all over.

At Congregation Kol Emet in Yardley, Rabbi Anna Boswell-Levy
hosted the annual Tashlich service on the fi rst day of Rosh Hashanah.

Pre-COVID, congregants would throw their pebbles and bread crumbs
into the water, to represent “casting off ” sins, and be done in 15 minutes,
the rabbi recalled. But this year, the event lasted two hours.

“We also ate,” Boswell-Levy said. “Th ere was a potluck lunch aft er the
Rosh Hashanah service.”
For years, Temple Brith Achim in King of Prussia has used nearby
Lower Perkiomen Valley Park for the occasional Shabbat service, accord-
ing to congregant Mark Hager, who joined in 1985. Most of those were in
the summer when the weather was warm. But during the pandemic, the
community began gathering in the park for winter Shabbat services, too.

More recently, it has not even needed to go to the park. Temple Brith
Achim members are just walking out their back door and using the fi eld
behind their building. It’s a long fi eld that slopes down into a small for-
est, more than enough space for a Shabbat service.

“We also have Wi-Fi out here, which gives us additional capabilities
we can use,” Hager said.

Also for years before the pandemic, the temple would hold weekly
Havdalah services, marking the end of the Sabbath, inside its sanctuary.

But for the last two years, it has held them outside with fi re pits.

“Th e campfi re Havdalah has become a regular kind of thing we’ve
been doing, and that’s a lot of fun,” said Rabbi Sharon Forman-Toll, the
synagogue’s educational director and a member for 38 years.

As Boswell-Levy explained, the pandemic showed how resilient Jewish
communities could be in their desire to still come together. And in using
the great outdoors to gather, they connected with the Earth and the nat-
ural world again. No longer were they taking it for granted.

Geoff Goll, one of Boswell-Levy’s congregants at Kol Emet, agrees
with his rabbi. Goll, 54, joined the temple in 2010. He said the congre-
gation did not do much outside before COVID — maybe gardening or
building the Sukkah each year, but that was it.

During the pandemic, though, as the community used parks, patios
and parking lots to get together, Goll had a few realizations. Th e fi rst
was that they were spending way too much time inside before.

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