Jon Marks
Oct. 7 affected people and synagogues in various ways. Some have used it as a rallying cry for action. Others have internalized their feelings.
And then there’s Rabbi Shai Cherry and his congregants at 166-year-old Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park.
“I feel as if 10/7 is the defining date of my life,” said Cherry, now in his fifth year at AJ after spending a 30-year career teaching. “With Kennedy’s assassination, you remember it, but nobody did anything different. With 9/11, some people did things different. Some enlisted, and it changed trajectories. But 10/7 is a defining moment in my career and in my personal life.”
The same was true at Adath Jeshurun, which quickly pivoted from its planned programming.
“We’ve had an ad hoc series of programs related to 10/7,” said Cherry, who came here from San Diego, but before that lived in Israel for five years. “We’ve called it ‘10/7 Israel Resilience.’ We’ve had speakers come from Israel and, at our last program, we had four survivors from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, near Gaza. We’ve also raised $11,500 in the first month for a new ambulance in Israel.”
Spearheading much of that effort is the director of programming and new initiatives, Beth Shapiro, who grew up locally but worked outside the Jewish community until last year.
“We have more people coming to services and programs and asking, ‘What can I do?’” said Shapiro, who pointed to a recent Rise Against Hunger event where nearly 70 volunteers helped pack 10,000 meals for the needy. “We have all the hostages’ photos in the main sanctuary. Our volunteerism has increased, and the generosity of people has been amazing.”
With the High Holidays looming, the topic will surely be on most minds. Yet Cherry said it shouldn’t be the focus because, in many ways, this is simply Jewish business as usual.
“My sermons will be related, but this is not a new phenomenon in Jewish history,” said Cherry, whose three children, daughters Tehila (22) and Rina (19) and son Shalev (15), have already been or will soon spend time in Israel. “That means that Jewish liturgy has incorporated responses to destruction and catastrophe. We’ve got the infrastructure in our liturgy to accommodate catastrophe.”
But there’s a lot more going on at the southernmost synagogue on the Old York Road corridor.
That’s what Shapiro is working on.
“We have a new Social Engagement Committee,” she said. “I’ve enlisted five-six congregants between 30-40 to do outreach within the synagogue. ‘What do you want to see?’ is the first question. If we’re going to run the programs, ‘When do you want to see them?’”
Those questions lead to an even bigger question that AJ and all shuls are asking.
“What is the value of synagogue?” she asked. “We know it’s religious and somewhat spiritual, but the community aspect and what it gives you socially is the future of Judaism in the U.S.”
“If it isn’t social and community-based it isn’t thriving. The programming we’re doing we need to thrive and to do that needs to provide young families with what they want. What they want is to have a community; to really feel the Jewish community is more than the traditional reason you come to shul, which is to be observant.”
This brings AJ to its future initiative, Kashrut 2.0.
“One of the things we’ve been working on is our food policy,” said Cherry, whose 2020 book, “Coherent Judaism: Constructive Theology, Creation, and Halakhah” deals with the intricacies of Jewish law and customs. “We have an environmental group here called L’olam — for the world, to the world. It also means forever. What do we need to do to the world, for the world so it can last forever?
“Kashrut 2.0 is looking at whether traditional kashrut is enough for today’s world. What’s the original purpose of what kashrut may have been and is it still fulfilling its purpose? For instance, there’s been discussions about not having any beef. We’re also talking about where we source our food from. And we’ve already dealt with recycling issues.”
But L’olom goes beyond that. With climate change and other environmental concerns at the forefront of many congregants’ minds, AJ has taken that to heart.
“We are using almost completely recyclable material in the kitchen,” Shapiro said. “That’s been going on a couple of years. I ran a program last year which had to do with learning about plants in your home. People came out. We ran programs out in the garden for kids and had a huge garden salad dinner. People don’t usually come to synagogue to have salad. But they loved it.”
Those efforts appeal to younger generations.
“People need to feel if they’re under 50 they’re still welcome. The other piece of it is we are reaching out to other congregations, and we will be doing things together,” Shapiro said. “We’re not in isolation. We’re all in it for the same thing — to strengthen who we are as a Jewish community in Philly. We can’t do it by ourselves.”
Jon Marks is a Philadelphia-area freelance writer.
