It’s on the most modern (left-wing a la R. Avi Weiss) wing of Orthodox Judaism. It led the way with women’s prayer groups and showing the documentary Trembling Before God. It had a woman (Reb Mimi Feigelson) lead kiddish for the entire congregation one Shabbos morning. I suspect that Bnai David‘s head rabbi Yosef Kanefsky would like to see female rabbis and women getting aliyot (but such a move right now would split the congregation).
So does this isolate Bnai David?
I know rabbis who won’t set foot in there after its renovation a few years ago made the place completely egalitarian, with equal seating for men and women (in their separate sections).
But Bnai David is hard to isolate when it is the second(?) biggest Orthodox synagogue in Los Angeles. It has more than 300 member families. It is reputed to have the best children’s programming of any shul in the neighborhood. It’s filled with young people. It’s only going to get bigger. It has two young rabbis. It’s on a strong growth curve.
