[2] Facing demographic decline in the early 2000s, the congregation undertook a number of efforts to attract Orthodox Jews to Malden and its synagogue.

In 1906, Beth Israel hired its first rabbi, Dov Ber Boruchoff, who would stay on for 33 years until his death on Passover in 1939.

[9][10][11] In 1993, the synagogue was targeted by a neo-Nazi group calling itself the Aryan War Council who threatened adverse consequences if an investigation into a recent desecration of a nearby Jewish cemetery was continued.

In 2005 the congregation intensified these efforts, advertising the loan opportunities in national publications,[5][13] and creating Malden's eruv.

[8] Singer-songwriter Norman Greenbaum, who wrote and performed the 1969 rock-gospel hit song "Spirit in the Sky", attended Beth Israel as a child.