Fledgling synagogue thrives in West Phila.

Outside the Penn campus, West Philadelphia is perhaps one of the last places one would expect to find a synagogue -- much less one that shares space with several Christian denominations.

But with Yom Kippur last week and more Jewish holidays approaching, a fledgling synagogue in the Calvary Church at 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue finds itself scrambling to meet the demands of a community that, according to its founders, has long thirsted for a local Jewish institution with a fresh perspective.

A new Reconstructionist synagogue called Kol Tzedek, or "Voice of Justice," was officially incorporated last May as the only synagogue in West Philadelphia not afilliated with a college or university, such as the Lubavitch House and Hillel.

"We have some people who have been living in West Philadelphia for 40 years, but who have had to join a synagogue outside of their neighborhood," Kol Tzedek President and 2002 College graduate Noga Newberg said. "We also have younger couples that have just moved to the area and people who never joined a synagogue but got excited to join ours because of who we are."

The synagogue currently shares chapel space at Calvary with Methodist, Menonite and Episcopal congregations.

The once-vibrant West Philadelphia Jewish community, which reached its peak during the 1960s, gradually declined as a result of urban decay and Jewish families moving to the suburbs.

By the mid 1980s, the last synagogue in the area closed its doors.

But all this is set to change.

Kol Tzedek, which has already formed a board, written bylaws and attracted 30 families as members, plans on using a variety of methods to continue tapping into this growing community and welcoming alienated Jews back into the fold of Jewish life.

The synagogue has its roots in the informal potluck dinners and services that Newberg, Student Rabbi Lauren Grabelle-Herrmann and others used to hold at their homes.

Grabelle-Herrmann, who will be ordained upon graduation in May from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pa., said that the synagogue is unique for its emphasis on social activism, community and urban life.

Much of what the synagogue does is also centered on Reconstructionist theory, which Newberg said includes "democratic participation and transparency in decision-making."

The synagogue currently has Friday night and Saturday morning services once a month, and also sponsors adult education classes and a "Torah school" for children.

Richard Kirk, president of the board of directors for the Calvary Center for Culture and Community, said that he has been working for a long time to attract a synagogue to the area.

"As diverse as University City is, it's a huge hole not having a synagogue here," he said.

Faculty Director of the Kelly Writer's House Al Filreis, who recently joined the synagogue and whose son will have the first bar mitzvah there in January, said that he chose Kol Tzedek because of its unique characteristics.

"I didn't affiliate with Philadelphia synagogues [before] because many of them seemed extensive, fancy and boring," he said. "This place is exciting and a real neighborhood project."

Filreis added that the synagogue's proximity to his West Philadelphia home gives him a taste of what the area's Jewish community must have felt like many years ago.

"The original owners of my home, which was built in the 1920s, were Jews who must have been able to walk to synagogue," he said. "Now my family can walk to synagogue too."

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