Monday, November 6, 2017

In Memory of Rabbi Selig Salkowitz

News arrived over the weekend of the death of my immediate predecessor at Lakeside Congregation, Rabbi Selig Salkowitz. Selig changed the face of the modern Reform rabbinate, and though he only served our congregation for a year as an interim rabbi, he certainly changed our congregation as well.

Selig served a congregation in New Jersey for many years with great distinction. In his honor they named their Scholar-in-Residence program after him, and his funeral was held in their sanctuary this morning. Selig was also a distinguished member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, chairing an ad-hoc committee to look at the question of ordination of LGBTQ rabbis. The committee report was in favor of ordination, changing the face of the American Rabbinate.

After his retirement, Selig took on the task of serving congregations all over the country in the role of interim rabbi. It was practically unknown for congregations to take this step until Selig, and a handful of other colleagues, proved the wisdom of giving congregations an opportunity to step back, do a self-appraisal and search for a new rabbi without the pressure that finding an immediate replacement can bring. 

That is the gift that Selig gave to Lakeside Congregation. In his brief time here he made deep connections, and in a matter of months, I know that he changed people's lives  He also helped the board and rabbinic search committee define what they were looking for in a new rabbi. He did that work while also holding down the fort; teaching and preaching and leading services at Lakeside.  

It was, of course, during that year, that I interviewed to be the rabbi here. I met Selig and he became my trusted advisor. He gave me his honest and hopeful appraisal of the congregation, and of what he thought my chances of success might be. At the same time he was advising the search committee, and his wisdom was welcome in every room.

I will never forget the service where Lakeside welcomed me, and we said farewell to Selig.  With exaggerated ceremony and with good humor he took his keys out of his pocket and passed them to me.  He set the tone of scholarship, informality, caring and humor, that have been ongoing for these past 20 years. 

I got to see Selig from time to time at rabbinic meetings, and we invited him back to Lakeside on several occasions. I have run into several colleagues happy in their rabbinic positions at places where Selig served as interim rabbi before they arrived. I am not quite sure what to call Selig in my life. I don't know that I knew him well enough to call him friend.  And I didn't lean on him enough to think of him as a mentor. The best way to describe him comes from a story in the Torah. In the Book of Genesis, Jacob sends his son Joseph to find his brothers who are in the fields with their flocks.

When Joseph gets to the field his brothers are nowhere to be found. The whole biblical narrative is in danger of falling apart. If Joseph doesn't find them, he doesn't get to Egypt, he doesn't become second in command to Pharaoh, doesn't save Egypt and Israel, there is no Moses and therefore no revelation and no Judaism.

The Torah tells us that Joseph comes upon a man, who asks "What are you looking for?"  and then directs Joseph on his path. That was Rabbi Selig Salkowitz. He asked Lakeside Congregation, "What are you looking for?" and he asked the same of me. And when he realized that we were headed in the same direction he helped us find each other. Some commentators say that the man Joseph finds in the field who points him on his way was really an angel sent by God. I know how I feel about my predecessor, Rabbi Selig Salkowitz, but I'll leave you to draw your own conclusion. May the memory of Rabbi Selig Salkowitz abide among us as a blessing, and may he rest in peace.

Rabbi Isaac Serotta

3 comments:

  1. He was the rabbi who presided at my bar mitzvah in Fair Lawn, NJ at temple Avodah. I tried to see him again before he passed but we never got together.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rabbi Selig was my across-the-street neighbor in Fair Lawn, NJ. He rather reminded me of my dad, a retired protestant minister.

    On several occasions he invited my girlfriend and me over for drinks and snacks. We enjoyed free-flowing conversations, marveling at his erudition combined with a very open mind. I fixed his veteran clothes dryer in the basement, which only needed a new drive belt rather than complete replacement.

    At his invitation, we attended a service at Temple Avodat Shalom in River Edge, NJ, where Rabbi Selig was honored for his years of service there. The congregation's enormous respect for him was evident.

    After I left the state, Selig and I had talked about getting together at a convention he was attending in January 2017. But I missed the connection, and thereby missed ever seeing him again.

    Rabbi Selig was a special person, as all who knew him recognized. I will treasure my fond memories of him.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I, too, was bar mitzvah and confirmed by Rabbi Salkowitz. My parents reamined close to him until their death and then his. He and my dad went with me to my current synagogue in 2016 and it was truly an honor. He remains a very important person in my life.

    ReplyDelete

We made it to Jerusalem!

Yesterday we had a very moving visit to the Kotel or the Western Wall.  After that we went to the Macheneh Yehuda open air market.  It was v...