Phillip Weiss, now Temple B’nai Brith’s religious leader emeritus, spoke Saturday evening, December 14, at a tribute that recognized his 40 years of service to the city’s historic Jewish congregation.

By Penny Schwartz

Some 200 people filled the sanctuary at Temple B’nai Brith, coming together on Saturday evening, December 14, to pay tribute to Phillip Weiss, the Jewish congregation’s revered and beloved spiritual leader who first wandered up the stairs of the synagogue forty years ago looking for a place to worship for Yom Kippur.

Four decades later, in his Yom Kippur sermon earlier this fall, Weiss said that in Jewish teachings, the number 40 carries great meaning, representing the length of time required to complete a task.

He announced that he is assuming a new role as religious leader emeritus, with the title of darshan emeritus.

Weiss has served as the synagogue’s religious leader while working full time as a philosophy professor at Wheelock College, until his recent retirement. He and his wife, Nomi Davidson, raised two now grown sons, Isaiah and Sam, in Somerville.

His dedicated service was recognized by Mayor Joe Curtatone and the City Council in a citation presented to Weiss by Councilor Mark Niedergang, a long time active member of TBB.

“He has sustained the congregation, providing a welcoming, inclusive, and diverse home for this city’s Jewish community, in addition to building bridges with those of other faiths and cultures,” the November 26 citation states.

Nomi Davidson, at the tribute at Temple B’nai Brith to honor her husband, Phillip Weiss, with her son, Sam Weiss (left) and other members of the extended Weiss-Davidson family. — Photos courtesy of Sharona Jacobs

City Councilors William White and Katjana Ballantyne and School Committee member Andre Green joined congregants, friends and family at the tribute.

Speakers highlighted Weiss’s role in guiding the congregation through a decades-long transition that transformed the Jewish house of worship that, in the late 1970s, faced the prospect of shutting its doors.

Past presidents praised Weiss as a wise and warm leader, capable of creatively incorporating German philosopher Friedrich Nietzche, the subject of Weiss’s dissertation, into his sermons.

Four decades ago, when the Somerville transplant from Long Island, NY, wandered into the Central St. synagogue, he found mostly elderly congregants whose simple, heartfelt prayer style struck a chord. Their warm embrace kept him coming – and also attracted a small handful of other 20s and 30s new to the area.

At that time, after the retirement of Rabbi Leo Shubow, the membership of the once thriving Jewish institution founded in 1904 by Jewish immigrants to the city had dwindled to a handful.

Weiss, skilled in religious practice, was pressed into service by the congregation’s elderly members to read the weekly Torah portion and eventually he accepted the role of TBB’s spiritual leader.

At the time, Weiss believed he was leading the congregation through its final years.

Against all odds, TBB was rejuvenated by newcomers under Weiss’s leadership and is once again thriving, with a full time clergy, Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz, regular religious services and a children’s school.

Weiss has encouraged people to comfortably engage with Judaism, Rabbi Jacobowitz observed.

“The sweetness with which you greet any person. Your way of truly listening and knowing the right questions to ask, is a model of welcoming,” she said Saturday evening.

“Phil has led us through many transitions,” said Seth Weiss, a long time TBB lay leader, noting his older brother’s pivotal role in guiding and officiating at what is now generations of Jewish family lifecycle events.

At Saturday evening’s program, Weiss reflected on the off-the-beaten-path journey that brought him to this place and time. He credited the late Morris and Ada Kleiman, long time leaders of TBB, with “changing the course of my life,” and expressed gratitude for the rare opportunity to be part of other people’s Jewish journeys.

“Nowhere else could I have been privileged to serve as I have been here at Temple B’nai Brith,” Weiss said.