In 2024, Congregation Kol Ami in Elkins Park considered joining forces with Darchei Noam, as reported by the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.
However, members ultimately decided against it and Kol Ami remained on its own.
Instead of creating something new, members decided to rebuild the shul.
“At our last congregational meeting, because a majority of the congregation voted that they wanted Kol Ami to stay Kol Ami and still exist, that’s why we’re here right now,” synagogue Co-Chair Fran Surkin said.
After deciding not to merge with Darchei Nom, the congregation’s alternative plan committee conducted research through studies, meetings and community outreach, to explore the best ways to move forward.
“Part of the research is that people’s need, reliance, interest in synagogue life has changed for the most part. I think the tradition had been before, a lot of people look toward the synagogue life for social reasons, for spiritual reasons, to educate,” Surkin explained.
“Those reasons are all still there, but we have to look at it in a different light, because the reasons that Joel [fellow co-chair Joel Edelstein] and his family may have joined the synagogue are different than what my son and his family are looking for … today, and that’s part of that research that we were doing.”
Surkin told Philadelphia Jewish Exponent in an interview that location was one of the reasons the congregation ultimately decided to remain independent, and one of the reasons why it is looking at changes in its services.
“At times like these, when there are upheavals, then demographic trends make themselves known,” said Surkin. “For that reason, over time, the congregation has gotten older, and people have moved on, moved into retirement. Some people into retirement communities or have downsized and moved from [Elkins Park] … It’s at those times that people reconsider what they’re looking for, how far they want to travel.”
The congregation’s new way of holding services is still being developed. The goal, according to Surkin, is to find a way to bring services to the community instead of conducting them in a typical sanctuary space.
“We haven’t fully manifested this yet but having services at a bar… Torah on tap, that kind of thing,” Surkin said. “Bringing the services to the people, which you can do when you don’t have a building, because then you can do a lot of things in a lot of different places.”
One of the biggest changes Kol Ami has already made is to the structure of their dues.
Instead of a traditional membership, Kol Ami now has flexible options such as a pay-as-you-go model, where people can pay to participate in individual events instead of having a flat, yearly fee.
Surkin says the new model for membership and services were inspired by what they were seeing at other synagogues during their research — especially when it came to researching what it meant to be a synagogue without its own walls.
“We are a congregation without a building, without walls. And so, there are things that make that more informal than a congregation that’s housed inside of brick and mortar that’s 60, 70, 100 years old,” said Edelstein.
“It gives us more flexibility. First of all, it keeps our costs down,” Surkin said. When the congregation holds Shabbat services, she notes, it meets at Shaare Shamayim, in the Keneseth Israel building, “and they’ve been very warm and helpful. Actually, the whole community has been so helpful to us and so welcoming to us, and that’s what helps us survive.”
As for what comes next for the congregation, Surkin says leaders intend to focus, in part, on music.
“One of the goals is to build our choir back up again, which has taken a hit with the dwindling membership,” said Surkin.
“Music and singing is in the fabric of Kol Ami,” Edelstein added. “You’ll find, if you attend a service, that the congregation sings. Even if it’s a choir evening and the choir is chanting and singing prepared choral pieces, the congregation sings along.”
As part of their effort to rebuild, the congregation will host a fundraiser in March, including a performance from Kol Ami’s choir.
“Kol Ami is a small congregation in which everybody knows you and I think that was the original vision,” Edelstein said. “I have been a member for over 25 years and I think it is the smallness and the intimacy of the congregation, and the caring that goes on and the caring congregants, was a very important part and will continue to be an important part of our congregation.”