Tree of Life Congregation welcomes nearly 50 new families as it plots its future

What will the addition of nearly 50 new young families mean for Tree of Life Congregation? The question remains open as both longtime and new members chart a path forward together.

On May 12 — Lag B’Omer — 48 families joined Tree of Life Congregation, en masse.

The genesis of the influx began last November, according to Greer Donley, one of Tree of Life’s new members, when several families with children who were beginning to think about Hebrew school began having conversations about what they were looking for in a Jewish institution. Most of those families were not affiliated with another congregation.

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“There were probably 15 of us, representing 12 to 15 families,” she recalled. “The point was to see if there was some sort of vision alignment and should we do something about it.”

The group found common ground in its search for participatory services that included music. Paramount among their wishes was a Jewish home that would welcome interfaith families.

While no single congregation or model served as an all-inclusive example, Donley said she was inspired by Sixth and I in Washington, D.C., and Romemu in New York, both of which she attended before moving to Pittsburgh.

Several local options were considered, but nothing felt right until a chance meeting between Donley and Zach Schwartz, a Tree of Life board member, at Mayor Corey O’Connor’s inauguration.

Another meeting of the group occurred in another living room, this one including Schwartz, where there was excitement generated about the possibilities of what joining Tree of Life might mean.

The congregation was nearing an inflection point. Rabbi Jeffrey Myers was retiring, meaning Tree of Life was searching for a new rabbi and working to attract new members. There was a sense that a truly bashert moment had arrived.

Donley said she and others from the group started attending Tree of Life events, meeting its leaders and its members.

Ultimately, the group decided to join Tree of Life for a few reasons.

Several of the families had ties to the congregation and were aware of its demographics — a mostly older congregation still worshiping in a building not their own almost eight years after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

“The thought that this synagogue, which has such an impact on American Jewish consciousness, possibly fading out over the next decade or two, it felt like we had a potential to do something about that,” she said.

Allie Droz, who held the first meeting of the group in her living room, said one of the reasons they decided to join Tree of Life — rather than establish a new congregation — was its legacy. For Droz, the idea of being rooted in a congregation that meant something generationally to her family was significant.

“My husband had his bar mitzvah at the Tree of Life. My in-laws used to belong there,” she said. “Our oldest son is going to be 10 this summer. He’s going to have a bar mitzvah in a few years, and to think about him becoming a bar mitzvah in the same sanctuary where his father became a bar mitzvah 30 years prior is just so meaningful to me.”

And while the group might be looking for things different than those who founded Tree of Life Congregation in 1864, and its longtime members, they have no interest in coming in and imposing their will on the congregation, Droz said.

“We’re eager to start having real conversations with the current congregation,” she said, “and to learn from them, hear their stories and get to know them.”

The group, Droz said, wants their experience to be rooted in Jewish tradition and that of Tree of Life.

“We want to do something that builds on that tradition and looks to something that speaks to us in a different way, as well,” Droz said. “We’re not trying to throw that out and build something from scratch. We want to be in real partnership with the current congregation.”

Molly Fisher, who grew up at Tree of Life but has been involved with the group Kesher Pittsburgh for the last several years, said she was looking for “a little more of a formal synagogue environment” for her family.

Like Droz and Donley, Fisher is interested in ensuring the long-term stability of Tree of Life that the influx of new families might mean, as well as continuing the generational connection to the synagogue.

“The idea of seeing my kids on the same bimah where I was bat mitzvahed, and my parents were married, I really hope we get to see that,” she said. “And I want to help continue the tradition of Tree of Life and maybe evolve in a direction that gets more people to go.”

Tree of Life President Robin Friedman said the congregation’s leadership is happy the new families joined.

“We want to find ways to be inclusive to their needs while keeping the structure of what we have,” she said.

Friedman said that longtime members have been meeting the young families over the last few months and are “elated.”

“Everyone wants to welcome them to the congregation,” she said. “We want to be a part of them and have them be a part of us.”

The congregation, Friedman said, is working to find ways to incorporate the new members, including introducing them to the new interim rabbi, who will be starting in July after the retirement of Myers.

“They’ve talked with the new rabbi and she is open to all sorts of options,” Friedman said, including exploring different types of services.

“We are very open to — not changing everything — but maybe one Saturday or Friday you have a traditional service and the next Saturday you have a service that’s more spiritual,” she said.

And while the topic of interfaith marriage is complicated, Tree of Life is a member of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the largest network of Conservative Jews in the world, which doesn’t permit its rabbis to officiate interfaith weddings. Friedman said it’s more important how interfaith families are treated.

“Can they go on the bimah? Can they have an aliyah? That’s more important than the actual ceremony at this moment,” she said.

Longtime Tree of Life member and former board trustee Audrey Glickman said it’s “wonderful that young families want to join the shul.”

Tree of Life, she said, has always been a strong community. She hopes the new members will take the time to discover the things that make the congregation unique.

“We would like them to come and get to know us because we do things a little differently — we always have since 1864,” Glickman said. “We’ve done things differently from other congregations. We are a Conservative congregation, and we intend to remain a Conservative congregation, but we like being different and we like being social, and we’re glad they want to join us.” PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.