Adath Jeshurun is leaving Melrose Park to merge with a Dresher synagogue
A merger with Temple Sinai in Upper Dublin means leaving Melrose Park — a longtime hub for Jewish Greater Philadelphia — as Conservative congregations consolidate.
After years of declining membership, Congregation Adath Jeshurun is leaving Melrose Park and merging with Temple Sinai in Dresher, where more young Jewish families live.
The blended Conservative congregation of about 500 households will practice at Temple Sinai’s current site on Limekiln Pike, and will be known as Adath Jeshurun-Temple Sinai, according to an announcement Monday from both synagogues. Adath Jeshurun’s building is up for sale.
Each congregation voted Sunday to approve the merger, which will go forward pending review from state and county officials. Clergy and staff from each synagogue will keep their jobs, and the unified synagogue will look for ways to grow.
More Jewish kids live in Buxmont area
For Adath Jeshurun, the merger means leaving a longtime Jewish hub in Greater Philadelphia.
Created in 1858, Adath Jeshurun is among the founding synagogues of the formal Conservative movement in the United States and has practiced for over 60 years at their synagogue in Cheltenham Township. Beth Sholom, the leaky Conservative synagogue designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is a mile away; both are part of the Old York Road Kehillah, which serves thousands of residents. Prominent Jewish leaders, from Gov. Josh Shapiro to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have called the area home.
Beth Sholom, which merged with Temple Sholom in Northeast Philadelphia in 2004, said in 2024 that their membership is growing.
But nearly four times more Jewish people live in the Buxmont Kehillah, where Temple Sinai is located, than in the Old York Road community, according to census data shared in a 2020 report for the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
And Old York Road had just 200 kids under age five in 2019, while Buxmont had more than 2,000.
“With the number of young families in the Dresher area, we believe the opportunity for growth is here,” Temple Sinai President Amy Kalenscher wrote in the press release.
Adath Jeshurun has also seen its congregation shrink overall, from 650 families in 2014 to less than 400 a decade later. The synagogue merged with the smaller Melrose B’nai Israel Emanu-El in 2024.
The unification will allow Adath Jeshurun-Temple Sinai to create a fund aimed at attracting new members, Adath Jeshurun President Denise Portner said, and figuring out what younger members want.
“The generation of today is looking for something different than we or our parents did,” Portner said, and are more likely to pay for services, like preschool or summer camp, than dues.
While Adath Jeshurun had a set membership rate, Temple Sinai runs on a pay-what-you-wish model with a suggested donation, Portner said, which is the approach the merged congregation will take.
Uncertain future for Melrose Park Jewish hub
The merger came as other Jewish institutions depart the Mandell Education Campus next door.
The campus’s owner, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, told The Inquirer in July that the land was not currently for sale, but has said it hopes to sell off some real estate and end landlord-tenant relationships. The federation did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday.
Gratz College left the complex for a Jenkintown rental last year, and opened a new Bala Cynwyd campus this year. Ramah Day Camp — which ran in the summers at Perelman Jewish Day School on the Mandell campus — closed permanently this year over low enrollment and financial strain.
The future of Perelman’s Melrose site is also uncertain. The school plans to merge with Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy by 2027. Leaders said earlier this year that they plan to keep all existing campuses open, but also said they have long looked to leave the Melrose Park location. Perelman Jewish Day School did not immediately return a request for comment.
In some ways, Portner said, the merger is part of a long tradition for Adath Jeshurun.
“Our synagogue has moved several times since 1858, and that’s because the Jewish community has relocated,” Portner told The Inquirer. “We want to go where the community is.”
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