For Beth David Reform Congregation in Gladwyne, respect for the natural world and social justice are more than just ideas. They’re practices. The synagogue is committed to incorporating equality into its actions in addition to its prayers and practicing environmental stewardship wherever it can.
In fact, later this year, about 30 congregants are going to make a pilgrimage to learn more about social justice, straight from the source, explained Cantor Lauren Goodlev.
“We have over 30 people from our congregation doing a civil rights trip down to Atlanta, Montgomery, Selma and Birmingham to walk in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and more,” she said. “We’re going to attend services at Ebenezer Baptist Church, walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and just learn about our past, but also learn how to move forward — learn about difficult truths, lest we repeat them.”
Beth David is made up of approximately 300 families, with a building perched at the end of a skinny road southwest of Rolling Hill Park. It is surrounded by single-family homes on one side and woods on the other. Those woods play an integral part in the calming, natural environment that Beth David looks to create for its members.
“For Rosh Hashanah, we do this concert out on our lawn where you bring your own lawn chairs, your picnic blankets, and sit outside and enjoy the beautiful landscape and explore some new compositions for your traditional liturgy for the High Holidays,” Goodlev said.
“That’s been a fun, experimental project that we’ve been doing for the past couple years, and it’s been really nice for our congregants.”
Beth David is also planning an expansive update to its facilities that will improve its relationship with nature.
“We have this whole natural play and social space project that’s happening right now,” Goodlev said. “We’re building different structures out of wood and things that are not your [typical] primary-colored plastic things.”
With a groundbreaking planned for this fall, this space will appease adults as well as kids. There will also be basketball hoops, picnic tables, hammocks and other relaxing features that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.
“Basically, the idea is to invest in our future and make use of this natural outdoor space that we have at Beth David,” Goodlev said.
Next year, the synagogue is also adding solar panels and working to plant a variety of native trees and other vegetation around the premises. Members are planning to start composting too, with the eventual goal of being a place for congregants to bring their own compost.
At Beth David, leaders and members are always willing to try new ideas.
One initiative that has found great success happens on Sundays, when after normal Torah study and in addition to various social action activities, small groups made up of cross sections of the Beth David community meet to get to know each other better. They’re called Sh’ma groups.
“Sh’ma being ‘listening,’” Goodlev said. “The idea was based on the desire to find small communities of connection. Eight to 14 people is sort of the secret sauce, or the key number.”
The idea here is to get groups of people together that may not naturally find themselves interacting as much. People bond over mutual interests like the game Dungeons & Dragons or sports. They bond over getting puppies during the COVID-19 pandemic, or over being empty nesters. The result is a congregation that has more through lines and is ultimately better off for it.
Each month, Goodlev presents these groups with a question that is loosely based on Judaism. Sometimes it relates to what is happening in the Jewish calendar or the world at large, but sometimes it doesn’t. For members new and old, these groups have been a success.
“These groups have been so wonderful,” Goodlev said.
Goodlev joined the congregation in 2016 and said she was struck by the positive, uplifting nature of the synagogue in her interview, as well as common values that she shared with the congregants. She loves calling Beth David her home.
“I feel very at home. It feels like this community is filled with great people that are progressive, intelligent, social justice-oriented people,” she said. “So when I interviewed here nine-plus years ago, it just felt like the right fit — and then it didn’t hurt that there are quite a lot of Eagles fans too.”
