‘We know all our neighbors’

About a mile north, Carly Ferdman and her husband, Adam Didier, also faced a decision about schools. They chose the Shaw neighborhood near Tower Grove Park specifically because it was close to the highly regarded City Garden Montessori School.

Ferdman and Didier, both 35, had been living in Chicago along the CTA Red Line and in the Pilson neighborhood. In 2020, as the pandemic began, they moved back home to be closer to family and find a lower cost home.

“We were worried when we moved back because we had really grown to love city living, walkability and knowing your neighbors,” said Ferdman, who is involved with MaTovu, which describes itself as “an inclusive Jewish ‘neighborhood center’ ” located in the city’s Botanical Heights neighborhood.

“We landed in Shaw, which turns out was great. We have all the things that we loved about being in Chicago, but we pay a third of the price for housing,” added Ferdman.

Being close to Tower Grove Park and the Missouri Botanical Garden is a plus, she said.

“We really have a good community here,” she said. “Our little neighborhood is close. We know all our neighbors. Especially now that we have two kids, it’s great to have support nearby.

If we feel like having a date night, we can walk down to South Grand. It opens a whole world of entertainment and food.”

Another Jewish family near Ferdman and Didier had the same experience. Katie Garland and her husband, Paul Sorenson, live in Botanical Heights.

“We love the walkability,” said Garland, 37, who attends Shaare Emeth and CRC. “It feels like a very family friendly life, being able to walk to school, walk to a park, put the kids in a wagon and go on an adventure to get coffee or doughnuts. Having those resources right there, especially with small children, it feels like a really lovely way to live.”

Garland grew up in Ladue, which has a decidedly different vibe. She and Sorenson are founding members of MaTovu, located just blocks from their home.

“We actually go past it every day when we walk to school,” Garland said. “Being able to go to Shabbat services there or activities or different programs has been a great way to meet the Jewish community in the city.”

St. Louis County has no shortage of parks, but it generally requires a car to get to one. City dwellers can walk out their front door and step into a park. Cheryl Adelstein lives across the street from Benton Park in south St. Louis. She’s lived in the city for nearly 35 years.

It’s an early fall evening in the Botanical Heights neighborhood of South St. Louis, and Nava Kantor stands inside the doorway of MaTovu greeting guests as they step into the warm light.

The occasion is the fifth “birthday” celebration of MaTovu, an inclusive Jewish neighborhood center Kantor co-founded with a mission to foster connection by enriching the community’s spiritual, cultural, and social life. The distinctly Jewish building adorned with Stars of David above its front door and in its stained-glass windows has been the official home of MaTovu since 2018. …

…“I think there’s shared values among people who choose to live in the city around wanting to be in a diverse community — more of an orientation towards social justice and grappling with our region’s most challenging issues, which are really right in front of you if you live in the city,” Kantor says….

…“The goal we had was to create a space that wasn’t a synagogue but was a Jewish community space where we could have social, cultural, educational, and spiritual programming,” Kantor says. “Because we’re literally on the margin of the institutional Jewish scene and also kind of culturally on the margin — being younger and more social justice oriented — we were excited to create a space where we could do programs that were a little more on the edge or a little more political or creative than maybe what some of the bigger Jewish institutions in town feel able to do.”…

A few years ago, Paul Sorenson and his wife, Katie Garland, were walking through the Botanical Heights neighborhood when Sorenson spotted a building with Stars of David etched in stone on the brick facade and in stained glass windows. Sorenson had heard about an old, vacant synagogue in the neighborhood, and it turned out they had stumbled upon it.

He asked the developers he eventually bought a home from about the synagogue. They told him they had purchased the building and were looking for a tenant.

“We said, ‘Hold on a second; we’ll get back to you.’ And that’s when we pulled the team together and started our conversation with” Jewish Federation of St. Louis, Sorenson recalls.

That discussion led to MaTovu, a Jewish center at 4200 Blaine Ave., which opened on Oct. 5.

“MaTovu has a history, albeit short since we are just over a year old, of being a queer-forward space for LGBTQ folks to feel welcomed and empowered to participate in our programming,” explained Shira Berkowitz, president of the board at MaTovu and one of its founders. “When our community members started talking about the desire to attend the popular and whimsical drag queen story hours, but that Shabbat provided a barrier, it was a no-brainer for us to reach out and host our own. We chose to partner with PJ Library as both of our missions align on this program.”

Commenting on the verse, and noting “MaTovu”, Sforno, a medieval Jewish Italian biblical commentator, suggests that its uniqueness is, “because the existence of these Jewish spaces of learning and gathering are not only of benefit to the people who are in them — but that they also are good in a transitive sense, that is that their very existence is of benefit to all.”

Our MaTovu team sees a lot of truth in this 500-year-old teach- ing. We believe deeply that our “neighborhood center” will find success through prioritizing equity, neighborhood engagement, and pluralism of Jewish practice and ideas. MaTovu is creating a space that is accessible and open to all, regardless of race, gender, class, religion, ability status, and sexual orientation. We intentionally welcome Jewish and non-Jewish groups from the neighborhood and other parts of the City — and look forward to hosting a rich diversity of Jewish programming that will enhance our community’s knowledge, practice, and social connection.