Annette Swartz is the Membership Vice President at Beth Tikvah B’nai Jeshurun in Erdenheim, a congregation that has existed since 1956. It was incorporated simply as “Temple Beth Tikvah,” which means “House of Hope.” While the name has changed slightly over the years, Swartz said that the synagogue’s function is still true to its original title.
“It’s like a home here. At our preschool, there is a loving teacher in every room,” she said. “They have taught so many life skills to children — how to be toilet trained, how to acquire tastes for new food — I remember as a parent wanting to get to school on time to pick up my kids because they would be ready to go, but then I got there and they don’t want to leave!”
Swartz’s journey at what congregants call “BTBJ” began when she helped out as a religious school teacher 35 years ago and quickly took to the community. Swartz and her husband both grew up in more traditional shuls in Philadelphia, and have seen BTBJ change over the years to become a more modern institution. She gave one such example while chuckling.
“When Rabbi Saul Grife became rabbi [in 1998], he brought a whole new life to the synagogue,” she said. “I remember when he started playing guitar, my husband and I were shocked, but suddenly there was a guitar at services and some people really loved it. He breathed a whole new life and more members started to join and it became even more of a vibrant community.”
Beth Tikvah B’nai Jeshurun currently has about 230 member families, which Swartz said is down from the all-time high of around 300. That number dipped at the beginning of the decade before starting to rise again in recent years. She said much of this decline can be chalked up to the COVID-19 pandemic, when a lot of families began to observe Judaism in a purely virtual sense and let their physical memberships lapse.
“People like being in their pajamas when they attend services,” she said.
Attracting young people and their families is a key element to the success of any synagogue, and BTBJ is keenly aware of this, Swartz said.
“People wanted something new and exciting, and when Rabbi Roni Handler became our new spiritual leader in 2021, she brought that. She brought vitality, and more young people have joined our synagogue,” she said.
Swartz said that she thinks that the reason that dozens of young families have joined the community in the last few years is two-pronged, with the reputation of Rabbi Handler being one of the factors.
“She is welcoming of everybody and a lot of people have joined because they just fell in love with her,” Swartz said.
The second factor that Swartz believes makes BTBJ so special is the uniquely warm nature of the congregants. She said that there is nothing that exemplifies this more than the stats from last week’s bingo night.
“We had over 120 people come out to play bingo, and it was a great event,” she said.
One of the values that brings people into BTBJ is inclusivity. Being accepting is a common trait among members of the synagogue, and it’s a reason that the temple’s preschool has become so popular. Swartz said that her kids did not go to BTBJ, but her grandkids did, and she knows that they gained value from a Jewish education. She said that especially in today’s political climate, with antisemitism on the rise, a synagogue is a good choice for a parent, because they are so safely guarded.
“If the synagogue is open, we have security,” she said. “All synagogues have full-time security now, so parents know that when they drop their kids off in the morning they are going to be safe that day.”
The community at Beth Tikvah B’nai Jeshurun is a close-knit one, whether it’s the men’s club, youth chorale, tot shabbat group, or attendees of next month’s Christianity 101 class. No matter what the congregants at Beth Tikvah B’nai Jeshurun are doing, they’re doing it together.
“We’re an inclusive, welcoming community,” she said. “Some people come for the High Holidays. You might use our synagogue as your social life. You might use it as your family — we offer all of that.”
