Congregation Beth Elohim (Brooklyn, New York) - Garfield Place and Eighth Avenue - Weider Retires, Events Since 2006

Weider Retires, Events Since 2006

Weider retired as senior rabbi in 2006, after 28 years of service. He was succeeded by Andy Bachman. At that time, Beth Elohim had over 1,000 members. In 2007, the synagogue was a winner of the Union for Reform Judaism's Congregation of Learners award for medium size synagogues, for "those synagogues that provide an exceptional environment of varied and comprehensive learning opportunities and have imbued their synagogue communities with a culture of learning".

In 2009, Beth Elohim was described as the largest and most active Reform congregation in Brooklyn. Prominent members included U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer. In April of that year, Beth Elohim was listed by Newsweek as one of America's 25 "Most Vibrant" Jewish congregations. In September, just four days before Yom Kippur, a part of the sanctuary ceiling collapsed. No-one was hurt, but the sanctuary had to be closed. The nearby Old First Reformed Church—with which Beth Elohim had had close ties since the 1930s—offered its premises for the holiday (Sunday night and Monday), and accommodated over 1000 worshipers. The day before the holiday, the synagogue was picketed by members of the Westboro Baptist Church, who shouted antisemitic and anti-gay slogans.

As of 2012, Beth Elohim was the "oldest Brooklyn congregation that continues to function under its corporate name", and its pulpit was the oldest in continuous use in any Brooklyn synagogue. Its rabbis were Andy Bachman, Shira Koch Epstein, and Marc Katz, the rabbi emeritus was Gerald Weider, and the cantor was Joshua Breitzer.

Bachman, a graduate of University of Wisconsin–Madison with a 1996 rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College, became the Beth Elohim's first new senior rabbi in 25 years on October 25, 2006. Before becoming senior rabbi he had previously been an educator there from 1993 to 1998. An advocate of more traditionalism in the Reform movement, in 2002 he started a small, more traditional, Hebrew-focused spinoff prayer group at Beth Elohim, and has spoken in favor of a more traditional liturgy. Bachman and his wife, Rachel Altstein, have been instrumental in bringing 20 and 30 year-olds into the synagogue, and in December 2007, Bachman was named one of The Forward's "Forward 50". In 2008 he was a regular contributor to the Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive website. Epstein, born in the Bronx and raised in New Milford, Connecticut, attended Wesleyan University and Hebrew Union College, and served as the coordinator of the Institute for Reform Zionism. In 2008 she was a member of "Rabbis for Obama", a cross-denominational group of more than 300 American rabbis supporting Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. Barrington Rhode Island native Marc Katz graduated from Tufts University and studied at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem before becoming Beth Elohim's rabbinic intern in 2009.