On March 26, 1924, Harry Cohen chartered Congregation Tiferes B’nai Israel in Warrington.
The synagogue’s name means “the glory of the children of Israel,” a prescient title for the shul.
Cohen emigrated from Russia to Neshaminy in 1910, bringing with him his Torah and his family. His four sons, Wolf, Benjamin, Louis and Reuben Cohen, kept the synagogue active following the patriarch’s death in 1943.
Today, a Cohen still leads TBI. Louis Cohen, great-grandson of Harry Cohen, is TBI’s president and has led services for the past 20 years. Cohen’s father still attends services at the synagogue. TBI’s foundation as a spiritual community built from a family’s legacy is what has kept it alive for almost 100 years.
Growing up two blocks away from TBI, Cohen’s father instilled in him the importance of being active at the shul, and when the time came for Cohen to lead the synagogue, he didn’t question the responsibility.
“There was no expectations, no pressure,” Cohen said. “At a young age, I just did it.”
“I’ve always viewed TBI as a home,” he added. “I knew nothing more, nothing different.”
Cohen took a similar approach in raising his sons, ages 30 and 26. While both sons help in event set-up and support TBI’s programs, Cohen hasn’t pressured them to take over as the synagogue’s layleader when he steps down.
“I don’t judge anybody on the way they practice or the way they want to [go to] synagogue, and I tried to do that with my sons as well. … I have to say that they will definitely continue to support TBI in any way they can,” Cohen said.
Not everyone from the younger Jewish generation has an interest in supporting synagogues like the Cohen family. TBI, not exceptionally, is dealing with a shrinking community, having gone from 150 family members in its heyday to about one-third of that today. The synagogue’s culture of everybody knowing each other’s name has stayed the same, but now there are fewer names to learn.
TBI has tried to adapt to the times. Originally an Orthodox synagogue, it now leans Conservative, but with Reconstructionist rabbis leading the community in the past. Rabbi-in-residence Seth Frisch has been involved with the synagogue on and off for about a decade.
Frisch is the founder and director of Lerhaus Institute of Jewish Studies in Philadelphia, a text study program based on a German institute popularized in the 1920s to serve as a beit midrash for assimilated Jews.
He first joined TBI as a full-time rabbi, then left to pursue the Lerhaus Institute. Frisk rejoined the synagogue a few years ago as a rabbi-in-residence, balancing his obligations to Lerhaus with providing rabbinic oversight for TBI.
“I said, ‘I’m happy to be a rabbi-in-residence, address what your needs are, help where I can, be a rebuilding presence,’” Frisch said.
The rabbi’s commitment to revitalizing the synagogue has materialized.
“It would be a shame to let this synagogue, with the legacy of the founders from the 1880s, with a family that’s involved — all the various families many generations later — it would really be a shame to let this go out of business,” Frisch said.
Last year, Frisch helped hire Education Director Shelly Shotel to rebuild TBI’s religious school. Attendance for TBI’s makeshift religious school had dwindled to about two kids, a reflection of the impact of COVID and apathy on synagogue life, Frisch believed.
“They said the heart of a synagogue is its school,” he said. “And it had fallen on hard times.”
This year, TBI’s religious school had 12-15 kids attend regularly, according to Shotel, who was previously at Temple Sinai in Dresher for 18 years. The school, taught by Shotel, uses the chevrutah model of pairing students to have them debate and discuss topics. During the three-hour session on Sundays, Shotel also spends one-on-one time with students.
Shotel agrees with Frisch’s belief about the necessity of a religious school for the health of a synagogue and modern Jewish life.
“It nurtures the family environment and strengthens the bond with Judaism within the family,” she said.
As the synagogue prepares for its 100th anniversary, Shotel hopes to further expand the religious school, incorporating field trips, Shabbat dinners and mitzvah projects into the curriculum.
The budget for the school is small, but this year’s growth holds promise for the school — and the synagogue’s — survival.
“It’s a gem in the middle of Bucks County,” Shotel said.
