At Beth Midrash Harav B’Nai Jacob, an Orthodox synagogue in Northeast Philadelphia, the community that members have fostered over the past five-plus decades is almost certainly going to last, Rabbi Isaac Leizerowski said. That’s because, as he explained, the man in charge has very little to do with how passionate the members are.
“The community will sustain itself. It’s not dependent on the rabbi as much as it’s dependent on the loyalty of the laity,” he said. “We don’t look at the rabbi as a feature of the synagogue. The synagogue itself is the feature — with a man, an individual, a personality, leading it,” he said.
Beth Midrash is made up of a medium-size group of Orthodox Jews who live in Northeast Philadelphia, almost all on Algon Avenue. The synagogue can be found in the basement of a duplex on the corner of Algon and Dorcas streets. The community is tight-knit, observant and loyal. Leizerowski summed up the appeal of a neighborhood like theirs.
“I’m blessed to be on a block with Jewish families, and the primary reason that I moved on that block is so, when I had kids, they could go outside and be able to meet other Orthodox Jewish children,” he said. “You come here to the loop on a summer day and there are 80 little Jewish kids outside playing.”
Everything at Beth Midrash is simple and by the book. The community observes halacha strictly, and Leizerowski said that the common tie between members is a steadfast commitment to a life rich with Jewish values and customs.
“It’s always packed, because I don’t have to sit there and ask people to come to synagogue. People come on their own because they need a synagogue. You don’t have to start asking people to send their kids to a school with a Jewish education; they want to send them to a Jewish education. You’re not going to buy a car, you’re not going to buy clothes, but you’re going to make sure that the money that you have goes for Jewish education of your kids. They keep the synagogue going,” he said.
Beth Midrash’s online presence is just one page, all white with two black icons. One is a map of the streets around the synagogue that redirects to a Google Maps page with the address. The other is a calendar that redirects to a PDF that is written in Hebrew.
The website is a formality. Leizerowksi said that Beth Midrash is not the kind of synagogue that is actively courting new members, although that’s not to say that members would turn anyone away. They just won’t change their traditional appeal, because that’s what the neighborhood wants.
“It’s a pleasure because you’re dealing with everybody as a peer group,” he said. “In other words, [they could] lead services. If I asked on Shabbat, they could read a whole portion, no problem.”
Leizerowski’s endorsement is important, as that name carries weight. He became leader of the synagogue after his father passed away and their shul merged to become Beth Midrash Harav B’Nai Jacob.
His father, Rabbi Boruch Leizerowski, was a well-known figure in worldwide Jewry. He was raised in pre-war Lodz, Poland, before surviving the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz and Dachau. He became chief rabbi of Bavaria after the war, eventually moving to the United States.
Leizerowski is in his 16th year at the head of Beth Midrash, and he does not know how many more years he has at the helm. He does know, though, that even though it is a tenuous time to be a Jew, the evidence shows it will not last.
“History has proven that the halachic religious Orthodox Jewish people have this huge potential to revitalize themselves no matter what happens,” he said.
aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com