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St. John
Lutheran Church
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By
anyone’s count, 45 minutes is a long drive to
synagogue. And with heavy traffic, that’s what it
takes 37-year-old Andrew Flame to get from his
home in Blue Bell to Reform Congregation Keneseth
Israel in Elkins Park.
For Flame, the synagogue’s vice president —
whose daily commute to work also presents him with
traffic jams all the way to Wilmington, Del. — it
means that he often gets back from leadership
meetings and services after his 5-year-old
daughter has gone to bed. But now it looks as if
he’ll be able to attend functions and occasional
services much closer to home; and he won’t even
have to leave the congregation where he became a
Bar Mitzvah.
Keneseth Israel — a synagogue with more than
1,100 member families and a storied history within
the Reform movement — is leasing space at St. John
Lutheran Church in Blue Bell. Starting in August,
they will hold monthly Friday-night services at
the site, and in September, the congregation will
open its second Hebrew school in the church
building.
“It’s much easier to be involved in synagogue
life when you can come home first and have dinner
with your family,” said Flame, who plans to enroll
his daughter in the new Hebrew school.
The agreement with the Lutheran church
represents the latest move in the long history of
the congregation, which started in 1847 in a
rented space at 528 N. Second St. More recently,
the synagogue moved to its current Old York Road
location in 1957, after leaving its home on North
Broad Street. For decades since, K.I. has occupied
a space right in the thick of the vibrant Jewish
neighborhood of Elkins Park.
But times have changed. American Jewish
families now feel comfortable moving almost
anywhere, and are, by and large, no longer
clustered in neighborhoods the way they were half
a century ago.
“I do not believe that we will ever see again
the concentration of Jewish population that we saw
back in the 1950s and 60s along the Old York
Road/Route 611 corridor,” said Carey Roseman,
synagogue president and lifelong member, who
herself drives to the congregation from her home
in Lower Merion.
So how does a congregation survive shifting
demographic trends if all its members aren’t
staying, or going to, the same place? The answer,
according to synagogue officials, comes in two
parts.
The first is to maintain the Elkins Park campus
as a vital center of Jewish life. The second is to
identify as central a location as possible to
where existing and potential members live.
Flame explained that roughly 75 member families
reside in the Blue Bell area, drawn from other
suburbs in part by the good reputation enjoyed by
the Wissahickon School District.
But Roseman thinks many unaffiliated families
there — particularly interfaith ones — could be
well served by the presence of a Reform
congregation.
“My biggest hope is that we outgrow this
location very quickly,” she said.
Rabbi Lance J. Sussman said he envisions the
site developing into a Jewish family and
educational center that will serve a wide
geographic area.
“I’m pretty optimistic,” said Sussman, who has
served as senior rabbi since 2001. “You never know
if other people will join up, but the enthusiasm
of our members all point to success.”
He also said that it has become fairly common
for synagogues to rent space at other houses of
worship.
Still, for St. John’s Rev. William Welther, the
experience is a new one — one he’s relishing.
“We both share the Abrahamic faith,” he said.
“We come out of the same tradition of monotheism.”
