Courtesy of P’nai Or
Leslie Feldman
Members of P’nai Or in Philadelphia’s West Mount Airy neighborhood say the synagogue is intertwining the old with the new as it transforms itself to better meet the spiritual, social and cultural needs of the community.
The synagogue was founded in 1973 by the late Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi along with students and colleagues who envisioned a new form of intentional Jewish community. It is a diverse Jewish Renewal community, a member of Keshet, and works for the full equality and inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Jews in Jewish life. The congregation meets at Summit Presbyterian Church.
“We grew out of this search for meaningful approaches to Jewish prayer, learning and celebration,” said Elissa Yaffe Cohen, who chairs the steering council. “P’nai Or means ‘Faces of Light,’ and this is our approach to community — that we each shine in our own radiant way.”
The synagogue believes that Jewish Renewal is built on the idea that we live in a transformative moment in time, in which a new type of spiritual life is being developed. Congregants seek to experience the joy of Judaism to its fullest.
In the P’nai Or prayer space, congregants can experience this energy through “davvenen” influenced by Reform Judaism, Reconstructionism, Orthodoxy and Chasidism that blends tradition with modern liturgy and music. Rabbi Marcia Prager has been the rabbi-chaver for more than 21 years, leading and teaching successive generations of lay leaders.
“Our steering council has embarked on a series of initiatives to address the current demographic issues that many congregations are facing, most particularly an aging community and the decrease overall of in-person synagogue attendance,” Yaffe Cohen said. “The latter trend was exacerbated by COVID.”
To reach out to those who could not resume in-person attendance, P’nai Or developed a hybrid model for services, with regular Zoom attendance. During the pandemic, leaders met often to find ways of making online services more inviting and engaging. Today, the synagogue claims national and international attendance.
Yaffe Cohen added that the synagogue has maintained its programming, including Torah study and services every Shabbat and holidays, while adding social and study opportunities, both on Zoom and in person.
“New service leaders are paired with a mentor or co-leader to bring them lovingly into spiritual leadership, and all members of the community are encouraged and supported in leading prayers,” she said.
A member since 1992, Tobie Hoffman, who is part of the synagogue’s leadership core, values the opportunities to combine her love of music and the Jewish cycle of life and holidays and prayer into her many roles as a lay leader.
“I know I can do this because everyone participates wholeheartedly in the prayer, the music, the deep discussions of Torah, and the building and renewing of community,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman said a goal is to invite younger members to become more active as prayer and organizational leaders.
“One way we have always done this is learning together the art of prayer leadership in our innovative davvenen training group,” she said. “This is part mentoring, part group coaching, and we all gain from sharing our growths in being creators of sacred space.”
She added that the aging of the population has also enabled the synagogue to put Schachter-Shalomi’s principles of “age-ing to sage-ing” into practice.
“Rather than replace our elders, as is the custom in most congregations, we value our sages and continue to learn from them and hold them within our midst. Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Rabbi Marcia Prager, Hazzan Jack Kessler and many others are guiding lights of our community, even as we welcome in new service leaders and members to our community,” she said.
P’nai Or has plans to be an “incubator” — a holy space of growth and expansion. It is planning a davenning leader incubator program to launch in the fall, with a cadre of promising new leaders.
“It will be a resident program — right here in Philadelphia — that will train new leaders in the joyous and deeply engaging modalities that Renewal Judaism is known for,” Yaffe Cohen said.
Yaffe Cohen added that one key quality that P’nai Or possesses is its warmth and homey feel.
“We worship together, and we care for each other,” she said. “While Mount Airy is often referred to as a shtetl, P’nai Or functions as family.”
Leslie Feldman is a Philadelphia-area freelance writer.