Congregation Beth Am Israel was chartered in Southwest Philadelphia in the 1920s, spent its first 50 years in the city and moved to Penn Valley in the 1970s.

Today, the Conservative synagogue remains at that Hagys Ford Road location, maintains a congregation of more than 300 families and proudly shares its 2025 “Best Hebrew School” award from Philadelphia Jewish Exponent readers on bethamisrael.org.

This October, the congregation will celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Turning 100 is no small milestone, according to Rabbi Micah Weiss, the synagogue’s new executive director who started last July.

“I think to me it really brings home the intergenerational nature of Jewish community and Jewish peoplehood,” he said. “We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, who were courageous enough to want to start a community, who scrounged together shekels to buy a building, who wanted to hire a rabbi.”

Through it all, Beth Am Israel has remained just that: a community.

“New people, new families, a lot has changed over time, but it’s continued this incredible gift of a community,” Weiss said.

As the year goes on, the congregation will celebrate that accomplishment.

Last year, Beth Am Israel began the process of writing a new Torah. Soferet Jen Taylor Friedman, the first known female scribe to complete a Torah scroll, has already visited twice to help each member write one letter in the Torah.

In October, she’ll visit once more to write the last few letters.

“And we’ll eat and dance and sing,” Weiss said.

In recent years, Beth Am Israel has made better use of its outdoor space for services, special events and especially youth programming, according to Weiss.

“We’re surrounded by beautiful trees and nature,” he said.

Soon enough, it will be surrounded by one more: On Erev Sukkot, members will plant a tree to honor the 100th anniversary.

“We’re going to plant a special tree that will hopefully last for many years. A tree that hopefully our children and our children’s children will play under for many years,” Weiss said.

Also in the fall, congregants will cook 100 meals for the food insecure and welcome in Eli Silins, the owner and operator of Camuna Cellars, a kosher winery in Northeast Philadelphia, to make wine with Hebrew school students.

During Silins’ visit, students will stomp on grapes. Then, the winemaker will bring the grapes back to his winery, ferment them and transform them into a limited-edition wine for Beth Am Israel’s 100th anniversary.

A 100th anniversary gala will follow in the spring.

“We’ll have a big party,” Weiss said.

In the meantime, the normal rhythms of synagogue life will continue.

“We have Shabbat every week. Babies are born. People pass away,” Weiss said. “But it’s nice to stop and take a moment to celebrate all these years.”

After that moment, the congregation will look ahead. A capital campaign will be launched during the anniversary year as well.

The executive director said he can’t see a century into the future. But when asked to imagine the next five to 10 years, he predicted a couple of qualities and rhythms that will grow to define Jewish life at Beth Am.

“One is very practical. I think that we are going to settle back into the rhythms of in-person Jewish life. The pandemic was very disruptive to a lot of Jewish communities. A lot of us got really isolated and got used to staying home more. Judaism has some really old and really important technology that a lot of the time requires being together,” he said.

“I also think we’re reconnecting to a more Earth-connected, nature-focused Jewish life. We just built a new amphitheater outside. Our Hebrew school is all nature-based in outdoor classrooms. I hope that that kind of source of spirituality and nourishment will become more and more important in how we gather, how we worship and how we find meaning together,” he concluded.

jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com