Temple Celebrates High Holy Days and Special Anniversaries

2011 is a big year for one area Jewish congregation. As this weekend, the congregation will also celebrate two milestones: the temple’s 40th anniversary and its 30th year being lead by Rabbi Jack Luxemburg.

When friends and family ask Luxemburg why he has stayed with the same congregation for 30 years, he tells them that he hasn’t.

“I say I’ve been in the same place for 30 years, but I haven’t had the same congregation,” Luxemburg said. “I’m hoping the same can be said of me. That I’ve been able to grow along with the congregation.” 

The temple was born out of the dedication of nine founding families who met in the basements and rec rooms of area houses, schools and churches to begin one of northwest Montgomery County’s first Jewish Reform congregations.

When Luxemburg came to the Temple Beth Ami on July 1, 1981, he wasn’t much younger than the existing families, according to Janice Rosenblatt, executive director of the temple. He came to Beth Ami when he was 32, just beginning to start a family of his own, while many of the 300 congregant families were also in their early stages of growth.

“In a way, he grew up with them as well,” Rosenblatt said. “He grew up with us.”

From a population explosion that required the renovation of the temple’s first location and a final movement to a second location, to social changes such as shifting family structures and tightening budgets, the temple has grown into itself with a sense of flexible determination.

“There always was the attitude of we can do this,” Luxemburg said. “It’s one of the qualities that has enabled us to succeed – a sense of confidence in our leadership and our mission and our character.” 

Luxemburg cites the building of the temple at the current location as an example.

By 1987, the congregation had outgrown the original temple building located on Hurley Avenue. In the mid-90s the congregation decided to relocate, and after a three-day-long vote agreed with 70 percent approval to purchase and build on the current site at Travilah Road.  

Of the 300 families who made up the temple congregation when Luxemburg joined, more than half are still active in the congregation after 30 years, according to Rosenblatt, who said the statistic is indicative of the temple’s family-like atmosphere.

The congregation’s growth has now started to slow as it reaches a sense of equilibrium. Today, the temple serves nearly 1,050 households and the congregation demographics sway to the younger side, as they did at Beth Ami’s start.

Of the 1,050 households represented, 21 households are younger than 35, and approximately 900 households are led by members between 35 and 65 years old, according to Rosenblatt.

“It’s not just the way the temple operates today, but it’s the way they’re thinking of the future. I think that’s part of the success that they’ve always been able to look at which way the wind is blowing in the community,” said congregant and former temple board member Mitchell Glassman.

Glassman has been with the temple for 19 years and points to Luxemburg as a major driving force for the congregation and a piece of the glue that has held it together.

The temple’s congregational covenant of membership, located on its website, states: “We all want our Temple to be a congregational community in which we are there to support each other—a place where we can find comfort in times of trouble, courage and hope in times of doubt or difficulty, and happiness in times of joy and celebration.”

Thus far, it seems to have succeeded in its goal.

“In times of trouble, it’s a steady rock,” Glassman said. “It’s an anchor.”

And whatever appreciation his congregation has for his leadership, Rabbi Luxemburg reciprocates.

“I always feel a great deal of energy and enthusiasm to have the privilege to speak to a congregation and know that they’re listening to what I’m saying and considering it,” Luxemburg said. “It’s amazing that they still think I have something to say after 30 years.”