By Ellen Braunstein
More lights are beaming at Congregation Or Ami and they’re not just for Chanukah.
The Reform synagogue in Lafayette Hill, founded in 1947, recently refreshed its social hall with new lighting, paint, doors, banquet chairs and polished floors.
The two-month-long makeover followed a complete gutting and redesign of the sanctuary, a several-hundred-thousand-dollar project that was finished during the pandemic.
The synagogue community celebrated the updated Waldman Social Hall on Dec. 13 by honoring its benefactors, Gene and Etta Waldman, congregants since the 1970s.
About 120 members attended.
“The Waldmans’ generosity and vision made this dream become a reality,” said Allison Russell, chair of the membership committee and an executive committee member.
Gene Waldman wrote Russell in an email that it was the best investment his family ever made.
He told the story of the antisemitism he experienced growing up in Lafayette Hill. When he returned with his own young family, that meant joining a synagogue and ensuring that Jewish life could thrive in Lafayette Hill. The family has donated its time and resources to Or Ami for the past several decades.
“We had a wonderful gift from the Waldman family,” said Senior Rabbi Glenn Ettman. “They wanted to provide a community space to be able to have their commitment to the synagogue and their legacy forever connected to us.”
Ettman recalled the evening as a “great opportunity to be in the room itself and to celebrate all that they have provided us for moving forward in the future.”
“The Waldmans wanted to make sure we had a usable, functional social hall that could be used by school children, bar and bat mitzvah families and receptions,” Russell said.
The room is no longer dated. “It’s now bright and airy, a beautiful space for booking events,” she said. The multifunctional space will also be used by the Early Childhood Education Center, which adds an additional 100 families to the 200-plus-family congregation.
Three new dimmable chandeliers and about a dozen sconces can transform the room into a banquet hall, a more formal space. “It’s a fresh, painted new room that can be used for many different opportunities,” Ettman said.
Those opportunities included the synagogue’s Chanukah party and an upcoming Purim party. There will be celebrations for children in the early childhood program and religious school.
When the partition is opened, the connecting spaces of the Waldman Social Hall and the sanctuary feel cohesive and a seamless transition with matching wall colors, Russell said.
“When you look at our building, it’s evolving, which means the work is never done,” Russell said. She said that the bridal suite adjacent to the social hall is undergoing a facelift. And the nearby Tree of Life wall is being renovated by adding tracks to showcase and rotate artwork, including that of religious school students and professional artists.
Ettman said Or Ami has a deep connection to all its generations, which now number four.
“We continue to care for certain spaces in order to pass it down for the next generation to care for,” Russell said.
“It’s now a beautiful space that can be used for multiple things,” Ettman said. “We can have our synagogue celebrations in the sanctuary and then flow right into the Waldman Social Hall.”
It’s an exciting time for a young, growing community, Russell said. “It’s a big breath of fresh air in comparison to where it was before, and that is kind of reminiscent of where we are as a community.”
Ellen Braunstein is a freelance writer.
