“It’s a totally different experience,
a havurah. You don’t just observe,
you participate.”
ALBERTA MARCUS
Alberta Marcus with husband Warren Marcus on their wedding day in 1960
In the havurah’s early years, the couples’ children came of
b’nai mitzvah ages, and Marcus’ son and daughter Sandy Marcus
Lieberman had the experience she didn’t: celebrating becom-
ing b’nai mitzvah among community members. Both children
taught themselves to read Hebrew and read Torah, another
opportunity Marcus missed growing up.
She remembers her son’s d’var Torah on the development of
languages and her daughter’s on women in religion, delivered to
the havurah in a member’s living room. She learned from them
both, she said.
Along with other group members, Marcus learned each Torah
portion, performing weekly skits.
Second only to her 51-year tenure as a founding member
of the Unstructured Synagogue Havurah is her tenure as a
teacher in Philadelphia, where she taught at both private and
public schools for more than 30 years. She was a certified senior
career teacher.
“I just wanted to instill in children the desire to learn,”
Marcus said.
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But Marcus didn’t always feel that way.
In fact, she didn’t intend to become a
teacher at all, turning only to the profes-
sion when her father died in her 20s.
Marcus married shortly afterward and
began teaching kids in the neighborhood.
She had previously enrolled at The
Pennsylvania State University before
transferring to Temple University and
then the University of the Arts, originally
wanting to study science and medical
research. Having come to terms with the fact
that teaching would be the way for her
to make the greatest community impact,
Marcus began teaching kindergarten
at the Alain Locke School and a local
Quaker school.
Marcus’s most rewarding experiences
teaching were the times when she was
able to hear the thoughts of students and
learn from them, she said.
On most days, she would sit the
students in a circle and have them go
around, giving their opinion on various
topics and questions.
One student gave a response that
Marcus still remembers to this day and
is one that reflects her values as someone
who is deeply embedded in a community,
rather than instructing one from the
outside: “Everybody is important.”
Now retired, Marcus has found
other ways to continue to learn and find
community in a time of profound and
pervasive isolation from the ongoing
pandemic. She has taken creative writing classes
at Holy Family University in Philadelphia
with a fellow havurah member. Marcus
also has taken classes on the Old
Testament (taught by a priest), music,
art and philosophy over her 11 years as a
student there.
“I like to learn,” she said.
In her creative writing course, Marcus
is working on documenting the story
of her upbringing, something she hopes
to pass down to her 23-year-old grand-
daughter Anna, who recently asked
Marcus to take her to Marcus’ South
Philadelphia childhood home — which
was embellished with decorated closets
and archways by her father that differen-
tiated it from the other row homes.
Though as Marcus relishes the memo-
ries of her upbringing in her tight-knit
neighborhood, she also recognizes how
much things have changed since her time
attending South Philly block parties and
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