![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/JE-Last-Word-Rich-Harwood-225x300.jpg\")
Rich Harwood (Photo credit: Helene Harwood)<\/p>\n Rich Harwood (Photo credit: Helene Harwood)<\/p>\n
On Nov. 23, at a luncheon with dozens of Congregation Tifereth Israel members, Rich Harwood was given the Marlon Meyer Award for Man of the Year. Yet it was more like a lifetime achievement honor.<\/p>\n
Harwood, 82, has been involved with the Bensalem synagogue since moving to the area 46 years ago. He initially joined for the same reason many Jews join: to raise a family in the place.<\/p>\n
Harwood\u2019s three children, two daughters and a son, all had b\u2019nai mitzvahs at Tifereth Israel. But in 1994, he became president of the synagogue too, due to his willingness to speak openly and honestly about its affairs.<\/p>\n
During his two-year term, he helped stabilize membership and grow the Hebrew and nursery schools. Then he went back to being a member, though he would later serve as co-president.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Harwood was again called to leadership. Tifereth Israel\u2019s Men\u2019s Club had passed away along with its former leader. But it was Harwood and Todd Sokol, a fellow member, who stepped forward to bring it back. Today, 50 of the shul\u2019s 140 or so congregants participate in Men\u2019s Club activities.<\/p>\n
Harwood \u201cnever says no when there\u2019s a need,\u201d said Rich Wadloff, a TI member who sent out the press release about the Man of the Year honor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t seek leadership positions. I really don\u2019t,\u201d Harwood said. \u201cIt\u2019s just that I do rather than talk. When I see something that needs to be done, I do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bensalem resident was not always so committed to Jewish life. His last day of Hebrew school, as he put it, was the day before his bar mitzvah. Then, from age 13 to 33, he didn\u2019t set foot in a shul.<\/p>\n
Hebrew school, as he saw it then, had prevented him from playing ball with his friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing to Hebrew school was not fun, not for an 8- to 13-year-old, especially when your friends are outside playing ball,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI lived a Jewish life, but I didn\u2019t observe anything. I grew up a secular Jew.\u201d<\/p>\n
But when Harwood was 33, his father died, and his mother guilted him into going to minyan one morning. Harwood lived in Olney, and the nearest synagogue was Melrose B\u2019nai Israel in Melrose Park Gardens. As he remembered it, he walked in at 6:30 a.m. and \u201cprayed with the older men.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey taught me this, and they taught me that,\u201d he added, laughing.<\/p>\n
But more importantly, he felt it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a life-changing experience,\u201d Harwood concluded.<\/p>\n
It continued when he moved with his wife to Bensalem. The couple chose the Bucks County town because Harwood\u2019s wife\u2019s sister lived there, and because it would make for an easier commute to Montgomery County for Harwood\u2019s job at pharmaceutical company Merck.<\/p>\n
Before they even moved, they joined Tifereth Israel. After attending the minyan, Harwood had become an active member at Melrose B\u2019nai Israel, even joining its board. Board members at MBI connected him to board members at TI, who asked him to join their board as well.<\/p>\n
That was 1979. By the mid-\u201980s, TI had undergone demographic change. Young families who had bought their first homes in Bensalem were moving to Yardley, Richboro and other nearby towns in Bucks County.<\/p>\n
Harwood and his family stayed because they liked the Bensalem Township School District. His commitment was part of the reason he agreed to serve as president of TI. And in doing so, he helped preserve the town and synagogue\u2019s small but steady population of Jews.
Synagogues in Yardley (Congregation Kol Emet), Richboro (Ohev Shalom of Bucks County) and Newtown (Shir Ami) all have higher membership numbers, but the Bensalem shul is there for those who need it.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year, our average age seems to increase,\u201d Harwood acknowledged.<\/p>\n
TI is trying to implement a long-term fundraising program to secure its future, and is also attempting to attract new members.<\/p>\n
Until it does either or both, the synagogue will just have to press ahead. Maybe Harwood will step forward again to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody has to do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n