Welcome from the Rabbi
Welcome to the virtual version of Kesher Israel Congregation!
It’s a challenge to encapsulate the warmth and vitality of our community in this electronic medium, but I hope that your on-line visit will enable you to recognize some of the reasons why I feel so grateful to be the spiritual leader of this community. Take a look at our calendar and you’ll see the vibrancy of our synagogue life.
Every Shabbat we gather for prayer services. The format of our services expresses our respect for tradition, our participatory culture, our appreciation for music and our desire to welcome everyone into the warmth of a communal prayer experience. One Friday night each month children and young families energize the sanctuary and the social hall during our Tot Shabbat and Family Services, which are followed immediately by child friendly Shabbat dinners.
Over the years, we continue to experiment with various other ways that our liturgy can accommodate innovation and broader involvement. Sermons are often replaced by discussions. We have hosted experts in “Bibliodrama,” "Storahtelling,” and meditation along with our congregational choir and musicians. Each has left its own mark in the evolution of our communal prayer life, and our inventiveness and ambition spill from Shabbat into the rest of our ritual life as well. In and out of the sanctuary, our ambitions are to provide both sanctity and a safe Jewish context in everything that we do.
Our religious school is not only the largest and most professional in the area, but it is also another anchor of our community. Students often transition from our preschool to our religious school and from our religious school into the Gratz Community Jewish High School which administers a satellite campus here at KI two nights each week. Parents learn and develop relationships with each other in our family education programs, and by supporting the youth groups which involve our students in informal Jewish programming all the way through their educational careers.
Our adults continue to learn through the wide ranging offerings of our adult education program. We participate in larger, community-wide, programs as well as offering a full slate of other classes which I teach along with congregants, other rabbis and scholars from the greater Philadelphia Jewish Community.
At Kesher Israel, we seek to bring every household into closer relationships with each other and with our tradition. Ours is a diverse Jewish community and we welcome every family or household that wishes to be here, whether they find themselves in Chester County after leaving a more or less observant setting, whether or not every member of the household was born Jewish, whether or not every member of the household is currently Jewish. It is our heartfelt belief that the beauty and truths of our tradition are not reserved for those who are already “in the know.”
Ultimately, our success here can be measured in the sense of community that you feel when you enter our real, bricks and mortar, building to attend a service, a life cycle event, a class, or even a committee meeting.
Please make a point to come to Kesher Israel and to visit our presence outside of cyberspace. Introduce yourself to me or to anyone else whom you see and let them know that you’re visiting. And, of course, never hesitate to call me or email directly if I can be of any help in your efforts to get to know Kesher Israel Congregation better.
B’vricat Shalom, with Blessings of Peace,
Rabbi Eric M. Rosin