Congregation Brothers of Israel
530 Washington Crossing Road • Newtown, PA 18940 • (215) 579-2200
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Congregation Brothers of Israel
530 Washington Crossing Road • Newtown, PA 18940 • (215) 579-2200
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Dr. Mark Nemiroff and I attended the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia’s presentation of the latest Jewish population study and this is one of the statistics that I reported on to our Board last month. Of the 215,000 Jews in the Greater Philadelphia area (117,000 households) 41,000 live in Bucks County (19,000 Jewish households). This represents a 31% increase in Jewish Population since 1996. However, and this is a big caveat, while we clearly are in a Jewishly growing area only 16% of the Jewish households are affiliated with any Congregation in Bucks County. A colleague of mine and I were bemoaning this statistic which reminds me of a story. Moshe Popik was manufacturing shoes and decided that Africa represented a potential new market for his excess inventory. So he sent Yitzhak overseas to get to assess potential demand. Yitzhak came back and reported “Our chances over there are zilch.” No one wears shoes. So Moshe sent Yaacov on another scouting mission and he came back with a glowing report. “The potential untapped market exceeded my wildest expectations. We can sell shoes to every man, woman and child on the continent. I agree with Yaacov that we have something very special to offer your unaffiliated friends here at Brothers, which is the chance to daven with you. Our Membership Committee led by Jody Kessel is doing a fabulous job posting fliers and placing ads. However you can’t experience the joy of celebrating Shabbat at Brothers by reading a newspaper or seeing a broad side at McCaffreys Supermaket. As I write this we will be having very special Services in commemoration of Yom Hashoah and in honor of Charles Algazi’s 90th Birthday. In the following three weeks we’ll be celebrating the B’nai Mitzvot of Joshua Chast, Alison Chack and Noah Perko. And then after a week where we have scheduled Friday Night Live (and I’m sure you’ll agree with me that our Choir adds a lot of ruach to our Services) we will be celebrating seven more B’nai Mitzvot in quick succession. We should all be justifiably proud of our Rabbi Howard Hersch Religious School because it’s the best in the County, hands down. So please bring your unaffiliated friends and neighbors so we can welcome them to our warm and growing community and introduce them to the next generation of Jewish leaders. Passover’s over. That means its Membership Season! No matter where you meet somebody, invite them to share in Shabbat with us. I just met some folks at the gym last month who came in today to pick up a membership packet. Please collect contact information and pass it on to our office staff so that they can compile it for our Membership Committee. We frequently invite prospective members to be our guests at programs such as the Russ Scholar in Residence Brunch and events such as Shabbat Under the Stars.
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