Jewish communities flourishing in suburbs,
city temples keep roots
Eight-year-old Benjamin Mager of Westford
grins as his father Neil adjusts his tie before Saturday's historic bat mitzvah
at Temple Shir Hadash. Sun/Julia Malakie
At a meeting last year of the Westford Jewish Committee, a long-standing
community group, members had decided it was time to introduce a more religious
component. They scribbled two names on a pizza box and voted. They chose "Shir
Hadash," or "New Song."
The pizza wasn't kosher, but the name stuck, and the temple has grown to a membership of 28 families since June 2001, said President Joanne Derr of Westford.
The suburbs are hot spots for growth in the Greater Lowell Jewish community.
"There is no question that in Greater Lowell the shift is to the suburbs," said Linda Skolnik, program associate with the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts.
The membership at Congregation Shalom of Chelmsford has grown from 104 to 200 families in the last five years, said Rabbi Shoshana Perry.
Congregation Shalom is an establish reform synagogue with a school of 180 students through 12th grade.
"Thirty or 40 years ago they were getting themselves together, and now they are very much a structured community," Skolnik said.
Most of their members are from Chelmsford and Westford, but they also draw a number of families from Nashua, Tyngsboro, Groton, Dunstable, Pepperell and Tewksbury. While they are relatively geographically concentrated, the true uniting factor is their sense of community, Perry said.
"If there is news of a birth, a death, a hospital stay, within a moment people are there to help. It is one of the philosophical center points of our congregation," she said.
The Westford Jewish Committee was a social organization that grew into a religious one, but its members came from many types of Jewish backgrounds: Orthodox, the most strictly observant denomination, to conservative and Reform/Reconstructionist, the least stringent.
As they began to consider forming a temple, nearby in Acton, the independent temple Congregation Beth Elohim was thriving. But the community connection for this group was stronger than the specific religious philosophy. The important thing, Derr said, was to retain their community focus.
Shir Hadash member Tali Holzman said she considered moving her family closer to a temple they liked, but didn't want to choose between their neighborhood and their synagogue.
"We love Westford, and we love living here, but for me it was lacking a Jewish feel. Instead of moving, we decided to bring Judaism to Westford.
Holzman and her husband David Zion celebrated the bat mitzvah Saturday of their daughter Danielle Zion, the first bar or bat mitzvah to be held at Shir Hadash.
The Nashoba Valley Jewish Center, based in Westford, opened in September 2001 and has grown to 350 members within the year. The center's Web site tells visitors that they cater to "every Jew that moves," allowing people of all denominations to participate in Judaic ritual at any level that is comfortable for them. But unlike a community-based group such as Shir Hadash, they insist on "affiliation" as opposed to "membership."
As Jewish communities are growing in the suburbs, temples in the city are holding their own by staying true to their roots, rabbis and members say.
John Steen and his family commute from Worcester to attend services at Temple Emanuel in Lowell.
"We looked at temples closer to home, but they weren't nearly as organic and alive and warm as Temple Emanuel," Steen said.
Rabbi Neil Kominsky of Temple Emanuel says their membership of 120 families has been holding steady, and includes a committed group of people from 37 towns in the state.
"It's a community that has always gathered more because people like the particular style of the place, not because it's geographically convenient," he said.
Temple Emanuel, a reform synagogue, is known for its focus on spirituality, social justice and ecological issues, Kominsky said, "and conversely less involved in issues surrounding Israel."
Lowell's Temple Beth El, a conservative synagogue, has also maintained membership since the largest shift about five years ago, said Rabbi Charni Flame Selch.
"Our membership is growing slowly," said Selch. "Thirty years ago our membership was centered in the Highlands (neighborhood of Lowell). The population may have shifted to the suburbs, but many members are still coming to us. Our adult education program is bursting at the seams."
This year the temple also added a full-time director of education and extended Hebrew school to eighth grade.
Myrna Gutfreund, of Acton, has commuted to Temple Beth El with her family for 14 years. She has recently started taking some Hebrew classes there to keep up with her daughter, Olivia, 8, who attends Hebrew school there.
"When she was younger, I could help her (with Hebrew.) Now she knows a lot more. In third grade, she's reading up a storm. I didn't want to be left behind," Myrna Gutfreund said.
As temples in Greater Lowell focus on what makes them unique in order to retain members, new temples such as Shir Hadash are contemplating their identity.
"We're still exploring who we are and what we believe in," Derr said. Even while they hold forums with rabbis of every denomination as they go through the process deciding whether to affiliate (choose a denomination), their programs are flourishing. Their Hebrew school educates 24 children. "We never expected that in our first year; maybe 12, 15 tops," Derr said.
Holzman said she's happy to take the time to discover what the temple will be.
"I don't know what the future holds. There are some advantages and supports you get from affiliating, but (the choice) doesn't feel timely," she said. "It's just amazing being here."
Rebecca Lipchitz can be reached via e-mail at rlipchitz@lowellsun.com.