Shir Ami in Newtown is poised to grow even more so as the school year and Jewish new year begin.
In the past eight weeks, the synagogue has welcomed 43 new families, with around half of those having religious school-age children. Executive Director Brent Osborne said that many of these families began in the shul’s Early Learning Center.
“We have a ton of young family programming under this umbrella called ‘Shir Sprouts.’ We do community programs in the building and we’ve also expanded to do programming outside of the building — we did a really successful Chanukah story hour at the Newtown Bookshop,” he said. “So, people are building these relationships, and Shir Ami has become that anchor for them. Now that their children are no longer in the ELC and they’re off to public school, they don’t want to lose those connections, and they want to stay tied to each other and stay tied to Shir Ami.”
Shir Ami Rabbi Chuck Briskin said that the synagogue works hard to cultivate relationships with families who enroll in the Early Learning Center but aren’t members yet. This can make them feel like they are as much a part of the community as anyone else.
“We’re very intentional about how we do this work. We don’t take this for granted … as we develop close relationships and really are invested in the lives of our members, especially those who are in the ELC who are part of our community but aren’t necessarily members of the community,” Briskin said. “This is a way to really bring them in and make them feel part of the larger whole.”
Briskin also said that High Holiday services this year will likely have more people than ever before.
“I am looking forward to just being able to welcome hundreds of people into Shir Ami over the course of the High Holy Days,” Briskin said.
At Shir Ami, the idea of tikkun olam — or repairing the world — is more than just a “marketing phrase,” according to Osborne. The synagogue works it into everything it does, from High Holiday services to housing the homeless during part of the winter.
“I think for our community, it has been such a really important opportunity for people to become more proximate to the issue of the unhoused in our community,” Briskin said. “You know, where we are in our part of Newtown, we’re really not seeing the unhoused community. So for them to come here, and for our folks to be able to cook for them, serve for them, take care of them, it’s just a really important way to get close and build that relationship.”
Later this year, Shir Ami will also make an exciting new addition: a Center for Adult Life, which will serve as a countywide hub for Jewish adults. The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia is helping to fund the project, and it will be open to members of all Bucks County synagogues. The Center for Adult Life will feature weekly lectures, concerts, author talks, film screenings and “a lot of game time with mah-jongg and bridge and canasta and all of the above,” said Osborne. Shir Ami is excited for this to begin and further unite the Jews of the area, regardless of what shul they belong to.
“We’re grateful to have that opportunity and resources to serve as this hub of Jewish life for Bucks County,” Osborne said.
Briskin said that this is an exciting time of year for Jews. It’s particularly exciting, however, for Shir Ami this year.
“We’ve just had some wonderful growth over the last few months. Seeing all these children and the young faces coming back into the building is going to be a real joy and blessing for us,” he said.