MAKING OUR JOURNEY TOGETHER
A bold “Chai Simcha Wall” welcomes visitors and congregants entering Har Zion Temple as they head toward the main sanctuary. The Chai Simcha Wall is in celebration of the life of Ronald Voluck, May 20, 1934–June 21, 1993. It is adorned with the names of individuals and families celebrating significant lifetime events in the congregation including births, B’Mitzvahs, weddings, special birthdays, and more.
MAKING OUR JOURNEY TOGETHER
Har Zion Temple at 100
1924–2024
WITH GRATITUDE
This book is underwritten by the Rabbi Gerald I. and Elaine Wolpe Publications Endowment.
MAKING OUR JOURNEY TOGETHER
Har Zion Temple at 100
© 2025 Har Zion Temple
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Har Zion Temple.
Har Zion Temple
1500 Hagys Ford Road
Penn Valley, PA 19072
www.harziontemple.org
Senior Rabbi
Seth M. Haaz
Centennial Celebration Chairs
Nancy Ford Grossman and Dr. Michael R. Grossman
Andrea and Ronald S. Robbins
Centennial Book Chairs
Dr. Robyn Barrett
Nanci Goldman
Sarah Silver Luksenberg
Centennial Book Committee
Jean Clemons
Deborah Golden
Dr. Madelyn Karasick
Book Development by BOOKHOUSE GROUP
Writer
Steve Levin
Editor
Rob Levin
Design
Amy Thomann
Project Manager
Renée Peyton
Bookhouse Group, Inc.
Covington, Georgia
www.bookhouse.net
Rachel Brook Photography
As part of the ceremony at the installation for Rabbi Seth M. Haaz, white ribbons spread out over the congregants, invoking an incomplete chuppah—a sense, Haaz said, that “we would be building together” going forward.
CHAPTER ONE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CONGRATULATIONS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
Kesher Hinuch Masoret
Keeping the Connection Strong
Learning as a Way of Har Zion Life Building on Tradition
Centennial Celebration Chairs
Nancy and Michael R. Grossman
Andrea and Ronald S. Robbins
Centennial Steering Committee
Kirsten and Cory Baritz
Robyn Barrett
Hannah and Mark Bookbinder
Peggy and Joe Carver
Rachel and Gregory Dolsky
Debra Finger
Nanci Goldman
Fredy-Jo and Lewis Grafman
Nina Greberman
Jane and Irv Herling
Sara and Marc Horowitz
Alison Abiri Jean and Raymond Jean
Dorene and Stephen Karasick
Jordan Landau
Lynne P. and Bill Landsburg
Michele and Robert Levin
Meryl P. Littman
Sarah Silver Luksenberg
Brittany Middleman
Samantha and David Mizrachi
Michele and Michael Perlstein
Ellen Pries
Jessica and Daniel Pries
Maxine and Elliot Rosen
Jennifer Sacks
Judy and Harry Sauer
Nancy and Stuart Selarnick
Rachel Spiegel, z”l
Sherrie Willner
Centennial Committee
Lisa and Arthur Berkowitz
Marice Bock
Marcy Borofsky
Jean Clemons
Lita Cohen
Lynne Gorson Cohen
Marisa and Josh Cohen
Andy and Bill Coren
Holly Saltzburg-Duncan and Jon Duncan
Molly and Dan Feith
Meredith and Joshua Friedman
Solomon Friedman
Dana Garcia
Beth and Erik Gilje
Deborah and James Golden
Jessica and Akiva Goldstein
Juliet Greenfield
Patty and Rich Grobman
Most of the Centennial Steering Committee chairs take a pause during the Centennial Birthday Bash in December 2024. Their enthusiasm and work over the previous year ensured that the once-in-a-lifetime celebration went off without a hitch.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Honoring Our Past, Celebrating Our Present, Inspiring Our
Future
Har Zion has long been a leading synagogue in the Conservative movement. With our distinguished history of rabbis and cantors, our congregation has been an enduring symbol of excellence. As we celebrate our centennial year, we had an opportunity to review the past and reflect on what has been accomplished. It has been an honor to be the chairs of the centennial year. We planned an array of programs that are multigenerational and celebratory. Our goal was to be inclusive and strengthen our already close congregation. A huge Todah Rabah to all the chairs of each committee who spent endless hours coordinating their events, and planning memories that will last forever, and to our wonderful clergy and staff for their tireless efforts on behalf of the centennial year.
As we close the first one hundred years and begin the next century, we wish Har Zion continued success and may our beloved synagogue continue to be the spiritual home for our congregants.
Happy Birthday, Har Zion!
Nancy Ford Grossman and Dr. Michael R. Grossman, and Andrea and Ronald S. Robbins, chairs of the Centennial Committee
Rachael Grobman
Susan and Peter Gross
Marc Grossman
Julia and Jacob Guzman
Caryn Harris
Nicole Herman
Sheri Herzberg
Lauren and David Horowitz
Sandra Kagan
Madelyn Karasick
Joy Wilf Keiser and Bennett Keiser
Hope and Lee Kirschner
Patty and Michael Kirschner
Sheila Kliger
Susan Kochman
Marian Levine
Shelley and Jack Marine
Benna and Tobi Millrood
Ellen and Bill Novick
Marcy Panzer
Sherry Paskin
Jayne and Ronald Perilstein
Cindy and Russell Reisner
Julia and Adam Rosenzweig
Sheila Schafer
Bonnie Rose Schulman
Robin Seeherman
Susan Shapiro
Judy Shrager
Penny Shuman
Abby Siegel-Greenberg
Aimee and William Silverman
Bonnie Squires
Rachel and David Steerman
Karen and Hazzan Eliot I. Vogel
Suzanne Waldman
Reisel and Ellis Weinberger
Deborah Wolff
Judy Levinthal Workman
Robin K. Zatuchni
Jane Zolot
Centennial Teen Ambassadors
Chloe Becher
Joshua Becher
Lulu Brotz
Ava Girshovich
Zoe Goodbinder
Lana Henry
Bella Herz
Jacob Millrood
Charlie Novick
Jacob Pries
Jacob Rudolph
Sadie Spiegel
Sophie Spiegel
PROLOGUE
One hundred years ago, our shul was created when a group of Wynnefield families hired a recent Jewish Theological Seminary graduate as a rabbi, raised the necessary funds, and built Har Zion Temple on a member’s donated property. These families established their new shul on traditions that reach back through the millennia to the foundations of Judaism. L’dor v’dor, from generation to generation, Har Zion rests on its foundation of kesher, hinuch, and masoret connection, education, and tradition. One hundred years after its founding, nearly half of those at the beautiful Penn Valley, Pennsylvania campus, Har Zion thrives.
Here, in the shul, many congregants participate in tikkun olam and adult education, parents volunteer in classrooms and at holiday events, and children engage in learning and fun that connects each to Har Zion, Judaism, and Israel. Our rabbis, cantors, lay leaders, and educators all contribute to the longevity and success of Har Zion, as has every staff member and congregant. The shul has been an essential place for the last century not just because of the wonderful things the congregation has done, but because of the wonderful congregation.
Har Zion fills the needs of its congregants to connect with one another and with our inner selves within a context of tradition and education. We are a community of doers, learners, and seekers, who ask questions about what gives our lives meaning. This exploration takes place in prayer, in study, in everyday moments, in acts of tzedakah and public service, and in working together to maintain our shul. Har Zion is our spiritual home. Where and how can Har Zion continue to find that critical connection, and what should—and can—that be going forward?
The answer is in community. In Wynnefield, the shul was the community’s hub for school, prayers, sports leagues, and socializing. For decades after the move to Penn Valley, it served as a community
magnet and the flagship of Conservative Judaism. Today, in a time when peace and stability have never been more prized or elusive, Har Zion again is a sheltering embrace.
Our mission statement mirrors that: “We offer a sanctuary for prayer and study, a sense of belonging, and a source of
inspiration. Our synagogue is a place to celebrate in moments of triumph, to find comfort in times of hardship, and to gain insight in the search for understanding. We comprise all commitment levels, accepting one another in our unique paths toward spiritual observance and growth. Let’s make our journey together.”
The original Har Zion Temple Hebrew School facility in Wynnefield. It eventually was closed and Har Zion Temple moved the educational program to a new campus.
Pamela Vinocur (left) and Lita Indzel Cohen at the Centennial Birthday Bash dancing to traditional klezmer music.
CHAPTER ONE
Kesher
Keeping the Connection Strong
Bרשק
efore demographics, technology, and the pandemic capsized congregational Judaism’s long-held strategies about the interdependence of synagogue clergy, staff, and members, Har Zion Temple had reimagined the relationship. Already flush with a panoply of programs linking generational, ritual, communal, and relational needs, the temple heard what its members wanted and a changing world required: an all-encompassing and accessible home and resource for individuals and families at all stages of life, every day of the year.
In a word, connection.
To develop and keep this connection strong and honor the commitment to accept “unique paths toward spiritual observance and growth,” Har Zion adapted to the social realities of the second half of the twentieth and the first decades of the twenty-first centuries. Led by the clergy, Har Zion reimagined certain practices of Conservative Judaism to become more inclusive in all aspects of its programming. Cultural changes necessitated a more accessible shul that was open and inviting to a diverse community of people at all stages of life, offering opportunities to worship, learn, celebrate, and offer support in difficult times.
Much was already in place. Daily, Sabbath, and holiday services have always been an opportunity to connect with the Har Zion community. Yet, Har Zion moved forward with more expansive inclusion in services and worship. Elsa First, in 1949, was the first Bat Mitzvah and Elaine Wolpe, in 1977, was
the first woman to receive an aliyah. One year later, women began counting as part of a minyan, and in 1988 Amy Eilberg, the first woman ordained as a rabbi in the Conservative movement, became an assistant rabbi at Har Zion. Women took on leadership roles and were offered opportunities to improve their liturgical skills so that they could lead and chant during services. These first steps toward inclusivity strengthened connections within and to the shul.
Har Zion has a history of service, exemplified by the Sisterhood and Men’s Club, that dates back to its first days. The century-old Sisterhood has a well-deserved national reputation
in supporting projects such as the long-running Women’s League for Conservative Judaism’s Torah Fund campaign. Sisterhood’s indispensability today is evidenced by raising funds for major synagogue projects, sponsoring kiddush, presenting gifts to B’Mitzvah students, providing flowers for the Bimah, adding beauty to mitzvot, challah baking, lively speakers, a lay-led Rosh Chodesh group, adult education, sukkah decorating, Mishloach Manot Purim baskets, and weekly and holiday visits to longterm care facilities. The Sisterhood also runs the nearly fiftyyear-old Landau Gift Box (an earlier unnamed gift shop was at Wynnefield) that offers a full range of Judaica and other beautiful gifts. In 2018 it became the first Sisterhood gift shop to offer online sales.
The Men’s Club annually raises thousands of dollars to support synagogue life, and its annual Yellow Candle Yom Hashoah program (Holocaust Remembrance Day) is a featured program of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs.
Generations of families have contributed to longstanding annual events like Hanukkah Happening and the Purim Shpiel.
Open a Book . . . Open Your Mind and Joy of Shabbat dinners are regular, well-attended events. Cook for a Friend prepares meals monthly for community members in need.
In 2023 the synagogue was selected for the national “Better Together” intergenerational program that incorporates Jewish learning and values in shared activities between middleschoolers and empty nesters. Members take advantage of in-person and online classes on Torah, holidays, prayers, and Talmudic stories, or a monthly opportunity to learn, ask questions, and share traditions about holidays and lectures on the prophets and Jewish law.
Diane Halpren (left, then day camp director) and Debbie Folz (then director of the NCCECE) on the grounds at Har Zion Temple.
Har Zion has long supported singles, seniors, special needs, interfaith couples, and LGBTQ+ individuals and couples. Additionally, Har Zion’s parent-teacher groups enrich the curriculum with holiday celebrations, fundraisers, programs, and communication between home and school.
The Home and School Association (HSA) coordinates several community-focused programs for the Noreen Cook Center for Early Childhood Education (NCCECE) and provides the first chance for young families to become involved in the synagogue. “I believe
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Rabbi Seth M. Haaz and his wife, Bonnie Rose Schulman, at their daughter Sophie’s B’Mitzvah in 2024. Filling out the family portrait are son Michael and younger daughter Sadie.
On the Shoulders of Giants
By Rabbi Seth M. Haaz
I am fortunate to be the Senior Rabbi of Har Zion and to stand in the guiding light of our clergy who have been honored with the title of emeritus: Rabbi
Simon Greenberg, Rabbi David A. Goldstein, Rabbi Gerald I. Wolpe, Cantor Isaac I. Wall, and Cantor Eliot I. Vogel. Under their leadership and inspiration, Har Zion has shaped Jewry in America, in Israel, and across the globe.
Senior Rabbis
Simon Greenberg
David A. Goldstein
Gerald I. Wolpe
Moshe Tutnauer, Interim
Jacob Herber
Matthew H. Simon, Interim
Jay M. Stein
Samuel S. Kieffer, Interim
Scott Rosenberg
Seth M. Haaz
Associate and Assistant Rabbis
Jacob H. Hurwitz
Reuben M. Katz
Jacob Kabakoff
Samuel H. Dresner
Shlomo Balter
Aaron Singer
David Clayman
Efry Spectre
Lawrence H. Geiger
Dov Peretz Elkins, Radnor
Kenneth M. Tarlow, Radnor
Gary Charlestein, Radnor
Aaron L. Peller
Elliot L. Skiddell
Mark Diamond
Steven Saltzman
David Barnett
Amy Eilberg
Eliseo D. Rozenwasser
Steven Pik-Nathan
Jacob Herber
Jill Borodin
Michael Knopf
Uri D. Allen
Scenes from Rabbi Seth M. Haaz’s installation. Haaz chose his friend, Adam Kligfeld (in the yellow tie), Senior Rabbi at Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles, to perform the installation. Prior to his arrival at Har Zion Temple, Rabbi Haaz served at Congregation Adath Israel in Middletown, Connecticut.
Har Zion—A Glorious Past, A Bright Future
By Cantor Randy Herman
What a rare and remarkable experience: to join a shul, and become its cantor, just as that community is celebrating its hundredth year.
And how deeply inspiring to be following in the footsteps at the great
Har Zion Temple of two long-term luminaries—the legendary Cantor Isaac Wall, and our beloved Cantor Emeritus Eliot I. Vogel. By all accounts, Cantor Vogel was a stabilizing force, a bedrock for the community and an astonishing cantorial inspiration, during some years of fluidity. I feel blessed to begin my own tenure at Har Zion Temple during a wonderfully auspicious time, with a wise and visionary rabbi, a truly extraordinary staff, student and overall membership numbers trending upwards—and now, for only the third time in eighty years, a new cantor. I am pleased to report, as I complete my first year, that the state of Har Zion Temple’s union of congregation and cantor is strong and solid; I feel immensely welcome and appreciated here for which I am incredibly grateful, and as I’m always telling my friends and family, “I love my new shul.”
Cantors
Bernard Kwartin
Max Reich
Aaron Steinberg
Isaac I. Wall
Eliot I. Vogel
Jessica Silverberg, Interim
Randy Herman
We are at the dawning of a new era, with the table perfectly set for all of us, together, to launch this historic community into its next hundred years and beyond—securing Har Zion Temple’s enduring place in the sacred, never-ending life of the Jewish people. As the twenty-first century unfolds, I envision new music, new modes of spiritual expression, and bold, exciting new ways of connecting our souls to the Eternal. As we celebrate Har Zion Temple’s glorious past, let us look with exhilaration to a bright future.
Cantor Randy Herman, his wife Nicole, son Donovan, and daughter Kaya are welcomed to Har Zion Temple. On the monitor behind them is an illustration of their new home.
Learning—Equal Access for All at HZT
By Dorene Karasick, Past Co-President
Madregot—which means “steps”—was the name given to our inclusivity program in the Jane Fishman Grinberg Religious School. The program serves as a way (steps) to provide an inclusive religious school education to children whose learning or physical differences might impede them from having a supplementary Jewish education without the support of dedicated professionals to aid in their journey. The Madregot program ensures that learners of all levels and abilities have equal access to a Jewish education in an inclusive environment.
The generosity of Marvin Lundy, z”l, has enabled us to establish the Lundy Learning Initiative which now not only supports the Madregot program but also provides assistance for our youngest learners in the Noreen Cook Center for Early Childhood Education. The Lundy Learning Initiative creates a dynamic partnership among school staff, parents, and private therapists.
Har Zion Temple is blessed and proud to offer a Jewish education to all of our students, starting with our youngest learners.
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that it’s those early connections that help foster the desire to remain active and involved in the synagogue as their children move through preschool into religious school, and beyond,” says Sara Horowitz, president of the HSA from 2019 to 2022.
Education is enhanced by the sprawling Penn Valley campus that features a 58,000-square-foot building including a 672seat main sanctuary; a chapel for daily services; the new, secure Kramer entrance; multiple classrooms; and banquet rooms. The campus houses two new, state-of-the-art playgrounds, an in-ground swimming pool, hiking trails, playing fields, and the Sayer-Berkowitz Pavilion, an all-weather structure
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A
in 2013, honors the 75th anniversary of
designed by Esther Cohen and created by the entire Har Zion Temple congregation. Kristallnacht was a night of anti-Jewish violence and destruction in Nazi Germany, so named because of the broken glass from the homes, businesses, and synagogues that were destroyed.
Students and a teacher’s aide participate in inclusive learning as part of the Madregot program at the Jane Fishman Grinberg Religious School.
large outdoor mosaic of glass shards, completed
Kristallnacht,
Executive Directors
Irving Mazer
Herman P. Gumnit
Gerald N. Schoem
Phillip Redelheim
Marcus H. Laster
Bulletin Editors and Designers
Dr. Samuel Sussman
Phillip Redelheim
Dr. Carl Lampner
Bernice (Bunnie) Prince Schutzbank
Arlene Perlstein
Howard Griffel
Karin Prince
Judy Guzman, Acting Gavi Miller
Continual Change Means Continual Evolvement
By Gavi Miller, Executive Director
Bryan Pokras
Jud Frommer
Paula Yudenfriend Green
Jane Fetscher Kontopodias
Current Full-time Clergy and Staff
Senior Rabbi
Seth M. Haaz
Cantor
Randy Herman
Scholar-in-Residence &
Ritual Coordinator
Dr. Ely Levine
Executive Director
Gavi Miller
Director of Member Engagement
Norman Einhorn
Director of Lifelong Learning
Rabbi Shawn SimonHazani
Director of Marketing
Michael Greenspoon
Principal, Jane Fishman Grinberg
Religious School
Dr. Michael Schatz
Director of Noreen Cook Center for Early Childhood Education
Sandi Toben
Director of Student Services, Noreen Cook
Center for Early Childhood Education
Missie Pludo
Administrative Assistant, Noreen Cook
Center for Early Childhood Education
Ashley Waldman
Assistant Executive Director
Emily Berton
Communications Coordinator
Jane Fetscher Kontopodias
Ritual Administrator
Gina Caplan
Office Coordinator
Dawn Collins
Bookkeeper
Rhoda Eisman
Security
Michael Whalen
Maintenance
Afrim Rama
Tenzin Tsetan
Over the last one hundred years, Har Zion Temple has adapted to meet the needs of the community we serve. A century ago, members of the Wynnefield Jewish community decided that they needed a local synagogue where they could pray, and from that time on the synagogue evolved. A building was built for services. Then Rabbi Greenberg was hired to provide spiritual leadership. A Hebrew School was established, and the facility grew. As the community expanded, more space and a second location were required. The Radnor campus was opened. Then the Penn Valley property was purchased, and a new home was built, large enough to accommodate the entire community.
Har Zion continued to hire staff to serve the community. After Rabbi Greenberg came Rabbi Goldstein and then Rabbi Wolpe. After Cantor Wall came Cantor Vogel. Now Rabbi Haaz and Cantor Herman provide leadership and support for the community, from religious services to lifecycle events to pastoral counseling. Staff were
Gavi Miller came to the Philadelphia area to study Ancient History in graduate school. An early career teaching Biblical Hebrew at Penn morphed into a post as executive director at two other synagogues before coming to Har Zion Temple in 2009. His many duties include working with the accounting and administration staff and lay leadership, providing oversight for equipment, technology issues, and vendors.
hired to run the religious school and then a preschool and camp. As the community needed more support, Har Zion grew to meet those needs.
As we approach the end of our first century, Har Zion is still changing. We strive to ensure that everyone feels comfortable when we gather together. Security has evolved after the tragedies of 9/11 and the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh. When COVID-19 swept across the globe, we made sure we were not just physically safe, but medically safe. Through all this time we constantly adjusted how we provided religious services, education, and social connections for our community. We began using technology to make our offerings safer.
As we start our second century, we will continue to evolve. The world will keep changing, as will the community. Har Zion Temple will adapt so we can continue to serve the community in the future, as we did so successfully in the past.
The front of Har Zion Temple on its beautiful twenty-five-acre campus in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania.
The two-hundred-seat Dogole Chapel in Har Zion Temple is frequently used for services not requiring the large seating capacity of the main sanctuary. The stained-glass windows were conceptualized by Rabbi Gerald I. Wolpe, evoking the Mishkan, the portable tent where God resided among the Israelites. The windows were designed and built by Hungarian-born Anthony Mako of the famed Willet Stained Glass Studios in Winona, Minnesota.
Rachel Brook Photography
Rachel Brook Photography
Community—A Foundational Need
By Rabbi Seth M. Haaz
Community is the most counter-cultural concept of this time, and it is precisely, and poignantly, what is most missing from people’s lives. Synagogue engagement and prayer must be immediately germane to the issues that will dominate communal and familial discourse, and Jewish education and ritual practice must be conduits that enhance relationships and create sacred space and time for community.
(L-R) Siblings of the Jean family—Emma, Eliana, Evelyn, Nathaniel, and Evonne—on the Temple grounds blowing shofars at the dedication of the Abiri-Jean Torah.
Built in 2022, the Sayer-Berkowitz Pavilion is a spacious, open-air facility on the Har Zion Temple campus that is used for religious, school, and camp activities— including as a Hot Wheels course for youngsters.
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accommodating hundreds at outdoor events for the High Holidays, school, and camp.
Although Israel is a continent away from the campus, Har Zion has always had ayin l’tziyon tzofiya, an eye looking toward Zion. During the 1930s, before the establishment of the state of Israel, Rabbi Simon Greenberg, z”l, brought international Zionists to speak at Har Zion, and especially after Kristallnacht in 1939.
His successor, Rabbi David A. Goldstein, z”l, lauded Har Zionites who made aliyah to Israel. It was the first synagogue chapter of the Zionist Organization of America, and the first American synagogue to erect a building in Jerusalem—the Beit Hamidrash
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The “Tree of Life” mural was created with the colorful handprints of NCCECE students for Rabbi Seth M. Haaz’s 2018 installation. Though the Tree of Life carries many meanings across faiths and cultures, in Judaism, the Torah is described as a Tree of Life to which we should hold fast.
Sisterhood Presidents
54th Street
Lottie Soltman
Ann Winthrop
Ida Lieberman
Lena Kolsky
Ceilia Gordesky
Edna Cohen
Clara Polen
Minnie Kohn
Sylvia Lundy
Fay Bernstein
Jean Goodman
Radnor
Ruth Schwartz and Florence Greenberg
Henrietta Goldfarb
Frances Rosen
Penn Valley
Myra Lipkin
Florence Schimmel
Joan Beckman
Ruth Chacker
Shirley Rosenberg
Harriet Bell
Karol E. Chalal
Sherrie Willner
Jean Herz
Andee Greenbaum
Marsha Waber
Lisa Berkowitz
Dorene Karasick
Anna Tractenberg
Cathy Miller
Essie Grossman
Ruth Goldman Kleinman
Cynthia Axelrod
Billie Bomze
Ruth Newman
Regina Goodnick
Elaine Landau
Gladys Shubin
Carole Karsch
Lois Krebs
Comfort and Resilience in the Sisterhood
By Dr. Meryl P. Littman, Sisterhood President
Emerging post-pandemic isolation, we now joyously celebrate our 100th birthday together! Yet we face uncertainty from rising antisemitism, the tragedy of October 7th, ensuing war, and political polarization. During these turbulent times, we find comfort and resilience in our Sisterhood, inspired by our strong legacy of service and tikkun olam.
Roslyn Levy
Barbara Boroff
Lois Sall
Joy Novick
Nancy Selarnick
Shelley Brietling and Dr. Madelyn Karasick
Karen Cooke and Sheila Schafer
Sheila Kliger and Susan Kochman
Norma Dworkin and Deborah Golden
Sheila Kliger and Susan Kochman
Lynne P. Landsburg
Michele Perlstein
Dr. Meryl P. Littman
Our 370 Sisterhood members participate in impactful activities supporting communities locally and abroad, including B’Mitzvah/Confirmation/Midrasha gifts, Book Club, Caring Committee, Challahs/Babkas, Chaplaincy at Inglis House/Saunders House/Bryn Mawr Village, College Outreach, educational programs, events, Federation, Floral Fund, Gift Shop, Israel/ IDF, JBI, JNF, JTS, Kosher Meals-on-Wheels, Madregot, Masorti, Mazon, Open a Book, Purim Mishloach Manot, Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund, Rosh Chodesh sessions, Shabbat/Holiday Kiddushes, Shul Stitchers, Sisterhood Shabbat, Sukkah decorating, Synagogue building upgrades, Torah Fund, Women’s League, and youth activities.
We enjoy sharing, caring, connecting, kvelling, and working together! We look forward to sustaining and growing our leadership pipeline through our Network to Nourish and Nurture.
Members of The Sisterhood packing bags of food during Purim for Mishloach Manot (“sending portions”) to be delivered. (L-R) Maxine Rosen, Karen Davis, Faye Goldman, Rachel Steerman, Dr. Madelyn Karasick, and Dr. Janice Katz.
(Right) Longtime Har Zion Temple members Constance and Joseph Smukler, with famed Israeli politician, Soviet refusenik, and human rights activist Natan Sharansky in attendance, were honored in 1990 by Israel Bonds for their efforts on behalf of Soviet Jewry. (Below Right) About eight hundred congregants from Har Zion Temple joined 200,000 Jews in Washington, DC, in December 1987, for a rally in support of Soviet Jewry. (Below Left) Har Zion Temple member Louis W. Fryman at the rally in Washington.
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at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Members participated in the first United Jewish Appeal congregational mission to Israel. Har Zion provided funds for European rescue missions of Jews before World War II, supported them in the displaced-persons camps afterward, and later donated heavily to the new state of Israel.
During the struggles of Russian Jews in the 1970s and ’80s to emigrate from the former Soviet Union, Har Zion clergy, led by Rabbi Gerald I. Wolpe, z”l, and lay leaders contacted American and Soviet officials, traveled to Russia to meet refuseniks, and in 1987 sent 800 congregants to march for Soviet Jewry with 200,000 others in Washington, DC. When activists Maria and Vladimir Slepak—one of the synagogue’s “adopted” families— finally were permitted to emigrate, hundreds attended their wedding at Har Zion.
Now, elementary school students write letters to Israeli soldiers, middle-schoolers learn about the harsh realities of antisemitism, and high-schoolers volunteer. Regular mission trips and donations go to sister synagogues Eshel Avraham in Be’er Sheva and Ramot Zion on French Hill in Jerusalem, Philadelphia’s sister city Tel Aviv, and the Philadelphia Federation’s partnership communities. “Our relationship with Israel is a significant portion of who we are,” says Gavi Miller, the synagogue’s executive director for fifteen years. “We have relationships with a number of different Jewish communities and shuls in Israel.” A newly reinvigorated Israel Affairs Committee at the synagogue helps provide guidance on the response to the October 7, 2023, massacre. Har Zion donated to many individual and group efforts in and for Israel, including traveling to Israel to deliver supplies to the IDF.
A Hunger for Meaning, A Thirst for Connection
By Rabbi Seth M. Haaz
As we accompany one another along our life journeys, we commit to being radically welcoming to all those who yearn for a spiritual home and to introducing them to the depth, wisdom, beauty, and relevance of Jewish tradition. People are hungry for meaning and thirsty for connection. And, for the past one hundred years, Har Zion has been at the forefront of this nourishment—inspiring generations of Jews, building and championing institutions, and ensuring a strong Israel.
and Nancy Ford Grossman
Andrea Robbins
help kick off Har Zion Temple’s Centennial Celebration in late 2024. Seated is HZT Co-President Elliot Rosen.
God’s Loving Embrace
May God remember our brothers and sisters in Israel— parents and children, siblings, spouses and partners, grandparents and grandchildren, uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews, cousins, and loving friends—whose lives will not be defined by the atrocities they suffered but by the blessings their memories will inspire. We remember and honor the Israeli victims of terror and war, civilians and soldiers, as part of our collective family and know that their souls are eternally, tenderly cradled in God’s loving embrace. May God remain close to all those who mourn for the loss of their loved ones, and may they find shelter, warmth, and peace in the broken hearts and open arms of the Jewish people.
Amen
Rabbi Seth M. Haaz
