“Much more than a majority” of Beth El the Beaches Synagogue’s congregation voted on May 18 to switch from conservative to reform, according to the synagogue’s current vice president Karen Toker.
Since the change—which brought in Rabbi Michael Matuson of Congregation Ahavath Chesed, The Temple—Beth El’s congregation is “growing just in anticipation,” Toker said.
“I think we will be able to meet the needs of the Jewish population at the beach in a much better way,” she said.
Rabbi Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Beth El’s rabbi for the last 15 years, will give his last service the weekend of July 27.
“I’m not retiring, I’m giving up the pulpit,” he said. “It was obvious I could no longer lead the congregation.”
Ben-Yehuda says he feels very good for the future of Beth El, but notes that many members “are actually finding themselves without a place to worship” in the conservative way.
Claire Stoopack, a Beth El member since the synagogue’s inception, says she will miss the rabbi tremendously and needs another alternative for temple.
But reform or conservative aside, “it’s still God’s house,” she said.
Matuson will attend a July 8 open house at Beth El —7 to 9p.m.—to meet new and potential members and on July 11, the rabbi will lead his first service. Matuson was unavailable for comment for this story.
“He’s someone special, that’s why he has such a large following,” Ponte Vedran Karen Selinger said of Matuson.
For the last 10 years, Selinger has driven to Jacksonville to attend The Temple, even though Beth El was a little less than a mile from her home.
“I wish it happened 10 years ago,” she said of the change.
