Kehilath B’nai Torah has only been around for about 27 years. It may not be as deeply ingrained as some other Orthodox Baltimore shuls, but it’s doing rather well.
In fact, it’s thriving.
That’s evidenced by a massive expansion project, first detailed in Baltimore Jewish Times in December. The synagogue is enlarging its main sanctuary and lobby, enhancing office space, adding a new classroom and more restrooms, and creating more kitchen and storage space.
Membership is growing. Today, there are more than 150 families at the shul. And every morning and every night, people are studying Torah. While many Jews are growing more secular, Kehilath B’nai Torah continues to provide a respite for those whose lives revolve around the basic tenets of Judaism.
Rabbi Jonathan Aryeh Seidemann notes that every day, there are people at Kehilath B’nai Torah before the sun comes up and well after it goes down. He calls them citizen scholars.
“This is the vibrancy of authentic Jewish life,” Seidemann said. “We live in an age of tremendous polarization. On one hand, you’ve got the highest rate of intermarriage and assimilation that we’ve ever had, and on the other hand, you’ve got an Orthodox lawyer and businessman studying the Talmud at 11:30 p.m. before they go home for the weekend. There’s two different worlds going on.”
While it may sound like Seidemann is critical of one way of life, he believes and constantly reinforces the fact that Jews are Jews, and that that gap is bridged far more often than most people think. He used Israeli society as an example.
“On the retail level, one Jew speaks to another Jew. Everyone feels responsible toward each other,” he said. “If you have an Orthodox Jew and a Reform Jew living next door to each other, 99.9% of the time, they are not going to turn down an invitation to their neighbor’s Shabbos table.”
He said that, typically, those who paint the situation as more “dire” or “gloomy” than it really is are the ones whose vices seem to be the loudest. Sure, there may be different camps of Jews who live largely separately, but that doesn’t mean relations are especially strained or volatile.
Seidemann cited another example — Chabad houses. While some synagogues are struggling to draw a crowd, the Lubavitch network is thriving.
“Go down the street to a Chabad, they’re full,” he said. “And most of the attendees are not even Orthodox. Many of those attendees would probably call themselves Reform.”
Seidemann added that it’s not necessarily about having these Jews grow into Orthodox Jews overnight. It’s about them feeling something and acknowledging it.
“They’re responding to a spark of a Jewish soul that’s ignited within,” he said.
All of which is to say that at Kehilath B’nai Torah, they want Jews to come and see what they have to offer. Maybe they’ll take to it, maybe they won’t. Either way, the synagogue will keep growing its numbers, its spirituality and literally, its facilities.
Seidemann expounded on the physical changes at the synagogue in a larger context.
“Sometimes, people get construction fatigue, but you keep your eye on the goal. It’s a metaphor for life in general — you’re doing it for a purpose. You look at it as an opportunity,” he said. “Everyone’s wired differently, and you have some people who have short fuses, and rather than sitting here and judging the other person for a character flaw, just remember that’s the way he’s wired, and he or she has to work to overcome that challenge. Everyone’s got his or her thing that they’ve got to work on”
When Seidemann looks at Torah study, construction, or the supposed growing gap between secular, Reform and Orthodox Jews or anything else, he does it hoping for and assuming the best. He hopes the Kehilath B’nai Torah community will do the same.
“Generally speaking, people who go through life with a positive, optimistic attitude, it’s much easier for them to deal with flexibility and adaptability,” he said. “Someone once told me that she thinks the hallmark of a good marriage is one that can survive a kitchen remodel. I think the sign of a healthy shul is a group that, on the whole … understands adaptability and flexibility.”
