In April, Rabbi Shai Cherry announced that he was leaving Congregation Adath Jeshurun after seven years.

The rabbi, or rav, as he likes to be called, since it refers to a teacher, was moving back to California. His wife, a gastroenterologist, had a new career opportunity.

The rav participated in his final Shabbat service in June. Like Moses with Joshua, Rav Shai said a blessing of strength, courage and divine presence to the man who would be succeeding him: Hazzan Howard Glantz, the synagogue’s cantor.

Glantz is an ordained cantor and rabbi, as well as a certified mohel. He’s a Jewish leader of many talents and skills, and now, he will become the sole spiritual leader at a congregation with more than 287 families.

The Conservative shul plans to move forward with that arrangement, too.

“He is so beloved as a hazzan and a leader of our musical program. We just felt this was a natural next step in which he could use his accumulated learning,” said Denise Portner, the president of the Old York Road synagogue. “He’s also been here in a pastoral way for our families, at births, at funerals, at shivas, so there’s a lot of personal connection.”

Glantz, for his part, said he welcomed more responsibilities. He’s been serving the Elkins Park shul for 22 years, and he’s excited to continue to do so.

“There’s no question I’ve got things on my plate that I didn’t have before. But I’ve always found a way of fitting things in and working them out and trying to be strategic,” he said.

Cherry arrived in 2019. At the time, the Jewish scholar was taking on his first rabbinical role. He was ordained, but he had never done the job before.

As a scholar, he offered an interesting, deeply historical perspective. He emphasized to the congregation that the Judaism we practice today is not biblical, but rabbinic.

“It means that you and I are not heading off to the temple with our animals to sacrifice to show God how much we appreciate God. Our practice today grows and continues to grow as rabbis continue to add layers of commentary to the huge swath of commentary over the generations,” Glantz said.

It was a lesson the new rabbi also learned during his time in rabbinical school from 2018 to 2023.

“I had no real appreciation for the ways that the rabbis of the Talmud saved Judaism. Were it not for the process they went through in gathering the notes that became the Talmud, and reimagining Judaism for that time, when they were in the ruins of two Temples being destroyed within 600 years of each other, Judaism wouldn’t exist today,” he explained. “The synagogue is a development of the rabbis.”

But in his first rabbinical role, Rav Shai also proved to be more than a scholar.

He helped the synagogue stay together through COVID-19, quickly pivoting to Zoom services. Cherry and Glantz also recognized a desire in the community for both classical Conservative prayer sessions, featuring a choir and an organ, and Reform-style prayer sessions, with a guitar and singing. So, they implemented both.

Then, in 2024, Cherry helped to integrate Melrose B’nai Israel Emanu-El, an older congregation that had previously met down the street at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, into the AJ community.

At his final service in June, the rav said he “arrived at AJ in July 2019 as a Jewish educator and left in June 2026 as a rabbi,” according to Portner.

“We all kind of grew together,” she said.

At the first service after Cherry left, Glantz didn’t turn the proceedings back over to the rabbi when it was time to discuss the parsha. He gave the sermon himself.

It was titled, “Am I Enough?”

In it, Glantz talked about the popular cultural mantra, “You are enough,” and the deeper truth it reveals: Many of us don’t feel that we are.

The hazzan said he has dealt with that feeling many times, and he’s dealing with it again, as he takes over the rabbi-hazzan role.

“Today I begin leading from both sides,” he said. “And I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t a little terrified.”

As he dealt with this feeling after Cherry left, Glantz sought guidance from the Torah. He re-read Bereishit, particularly the lines when God looks at his creation and sees that “it is good.”

“God is saying: This is what I made. It is good,” Glantz said.

But in true rabbi fashion, Glantz went on to say that being good, or enough, wasn’t actually enough. You had to take your goodness out into the world and do your best to contribute. Through this effort, you achieved growth.

“The Sfat Emet — the Gerrer Rebbe — taught that every person contains a divine spark that is uniquely their own, one that exists nowhere else in all of creation. That spark is unconditional. It is your worth. But he also taught that the entire purpose of a human life is the uncovering of that spark — the slow, patient work of revealing it through action,” Glantz said.

jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com