On its silver anniversary, Bloomfield temple marks a beautiful friendship

by Ron Kaplan
NJJN Staff Writer
05.12.05

Bob Adler, president of Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, was among those looking for a way to mark the Reform synagogue’s 25th anniversary. Recently, he had been interviewing his own father out of a desire to learn more about his family history.

“It proved a very powerful thing for me to learn,” said Adler, a market researcher and Montclair resident. “I just got the sense that this community, at 25, needs to look back and honor the people and hear their stories.”

Those interviews inspired Adler to suggest a documentary on the synagogue, which was screened May 7 for some 250 celebrants at the Reform synagogue’s silver anniversary gala.

The documentary, by congregants Lisa Korn, a producer and director, and Peter Trilling, a director of photography, includes several members who describe the unusual merger that formed the synagogue.

Prior to the program, Emil Weiss, Ner Tamid’s first president, described those nascent days to NJ Jewish News. A retired investment manager who now lives with his wife, Tamar, in Manhattan, Weiss followed in a family tradition of synagogue service: he became president of Temple B’nai Zion, a Conservative synagogue in Bloomfield, when he was 29; his father had been one of the original founders when it was founded in 1915.

Like many synagogues, B’nai Zion faced an exodus of congregants to more upscale locales. With membership hovering at about 100 families, B’nai Zion leaders investigated merging with nearby Temple Menorah, a Reform synagogue established in 1955 at Ner Tamid’s current location. Weiss was one of the members of the planning committee, which consisted of representatives of both synagogues.

The new congregation would be an unusual merger of a traditional Conservative synagogue and liberal Reform temple. As Julius Fisher, president of B’nai Zion at the time of the merger, told NJJN in 1995: “The Conservatives didn’t like bingo and wanted a kosher kitchen. The Reform wanted their prayer book.

“There was give and take on both sides. We wanted people to feel comfortable in their new home.”

The “consolidation,” as Ner Tamid Rabbi Steven Kushner called it in an interview prior to the anniversary celebration, took two years to complete. On a sunny day in June 1980, the late Cantor Samuel Morginstin led a procession of B’nai Zion’s Torah scrolls through the streets on Bloomfield to their new home.

Weiss produced a copy of Ner Tamid’s first synagogue bulletin, which carried his presidential message.

“We shall have many goals,” it read in part. “First we must seek unity of purpose: of action and of spirit. The ideas of ‘we’ and ‘they’ must be discharged from our lexicon.

“Second, we must raise our standards of inspiration: we must be innovative, open to entirely new ways and interested in breaking ground in our own unique way.

“Third, we must be sensitive to the past — the tradition — just as we are intent upon being inquisitive about our future.”

The consolidated synagogue was a member for a time of both the Conservative and Reform synagogue movements. However, in 2001, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism disaffiliated the synagogue because its policy of accepting interfaith families as full members did not concur with USCJ standards. Today the synagogue is affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism. Then as now, congregants say the synagogue’s sense of community trumps movement affiliations.

Prior to joining Ner Tamid in 1992, Adler had never affiliated with a synagogue; he came to this congregation, he said, because Ner Tamid was a community that welcomed everyone — echoing a sentiment widely heard during the evening.

A flood of memories

“There are a host of memories flooding by as I look across the room,” Kushner told the audience at the gala. “This [gathering] is like a dream come true.”

Noting the mix of new and old members, Kushner, who has been associated with Ner Tamid since it opened its doors, said, “I can’t tell you how heartening it is to see that kind of continuity, because more than anything else, it’s about community. And we are here to celebrate ourselves.”

He offered particular praise for the Weisses, as “people who had vision, who had the courage to make the dream a reality.”

Weiss told the audience how the merger of the two synagogues had been considered a pipe dream. “We were told repeatedly that it could not be done. But we negotiated, we compromised, and we won.” He proudly pointed to the membership rolls, which have tripled, as well as a 10-fold increase in religious school admissions since Ner Tamid opened.

Noting that “25 years is not a long time in this history of the Jewish people…and goes by in the blink of an eye,” Adler asked all the original members of Ner Tamid to stand. When the applause died down he said, “We stand on the shoulders of giants.”

The highlight of the evening was the screening of the documentary. Some of the most touching remarks in the film addressed the logistical problems creating an environment that was sensitive to Conservative and Reform adherents. “Which books do we use?” asked one woman. “Would the men wear tallesim when they went to the bima? Would they wear kipas?”

But another interviewee downplayed the differences, noting that simply and ultimately, “[W]e are all Jews…. When Hitler came for the Jews, he didn’t ask, are you Reform? Are you Conservative?”

After the screening, Adler asked everyone who currently volunteered at Ner Tamid to take a bow. He noted with pride how many of the original members were still a part of that group.

“May we all aspire to that level of commitment,” he said.