It wasn\u2019t until I was in my late 20s that it dawned on me that most rabbis don\u2019t start their sermons like this. <\/p>\n
As a kid I took it for granted \u2013 and as normal, usual \u2013 that Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld, zt\u201dl, would start his sermon by saying \u201cI was in Israel and decided to visit the Prime Minister\u201d or \u201cThe Gerrer Rebbe called me this week.\u201d It was also common for him to reference a continual stream of Members of Congress who reached out, Reps. Gary Ackerman, Nita Lowey, and then still a congressman, Chuck Schumer. Round out the state legislators and city councilors who asked his advice and I don\u2019t think a week went by without some politician making it into the sermon. This was all on top of his constant stories and lessons of his time with his teacher, \u201cthe Rav.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe rabbi,\u201d as we always called him, passed away last Sunday, and is rightfully being remembered for his storied life and contributions \u2013 on a grand and granular scale \u2013 to the Jewish people. His was a unique paradigm of Jewish community leadership. <\/p>\n
The grand:<\/p>\n
He was a prized student of the Rav, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik but equally as close to the Chasidic court of Ger, from where he hailed. He traveled between the interdenominational worlds of the Synagogue Council of America as easily as he did the RCA and the Queens Vaad, of which he was a founder. Back in 1984, he gave what may have been the first-ever invocation by an Orthodox rabbi at a Republican National Convention.<\/p>\n
The granular:<\/p>\n
But he was also just a rabbi trying to serve a community. That meant making sure there was a kosher butcher just as much as a day school. He could help newlyweds find an apartment, and he\u2019d likely be the first call \u2013 or visitor \u2013 to a sick congregant. That didn\u2019t matter if he was out of the country, even back in the days when \u201clong distance\u201d rates were exorbitant. <\/p>\n
In doing so, he built not just a synagogue but a community from almost nothing to three initials recognized the world over. His shul hosted most every new minyan in town as they started. Some were for new immigrants, or teenagers and young adults frustrated with the standard service. Those with their own space who still couldn\u2019t muster ten for a minyan, need not worry. Rabbi Schonfeld would send over some people to make sure they had one. Invariably, these became shtiebels that would soon dominate the neighborhood, drawing congregants away from his own. <\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t matter. If he thought it built up the community, then it got his full support.<\/p>\n
His community building wasn\u2019t relegated to the house of worship. Nor was it confined to Kew Gardens Hills, or even Queens. He was ever present on the national and international stage, at a time when it wasn\u2019t so common for rabbis of any denomination to necessarily be so bold. Here he was speaking up for Jewish values, and there speaking out to defend Jews in danger. One day, pressing the case to free Soviet Jewry, and the next advocating for a secure Israel. He was a member of, and often a leader in, Jewish organizations whose work impacted communities worldwide: the President\u2019s Conference, IJCIC, and more. <\/p>\n
Yet no matter wherever his travels took him during a given week, he was always tethered to shul, and committed to his congregants, or the children of congregants. <\/p>\n
I got a front row seat to that. <\/p>\n
As a young professional, still relatively new to Jewish communal work, I was working at the OU\u2019s advocacy arm, when they added the \u201cCatholic Jewish dialogue\u201d portfolio to my work. I was already pretty at ease with governors, attorneys general, and comptrollers; with mayors and the citywide electeds, diplomats, Israeli cabinet ministers, Members of Congress, and state legislators. On this new interfaith beat, I quickly got used to working with several bishops and the occasional cardinal. But in this joint OU & Rabbinical Council of America effort with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the OU provided the staff support (that was me) but the chairmanship, and leadership, of the Jewish side of the dialogue came from the RCA. And that was Rabbi Schonfeld. <\/p>\n
The rabbi. My rabbi, from when I was a kid. The one who built Kew Gardens Hills, that living example of pastoral care, the patron saint of dozens of other synagogues, an international spokesman for Jewish causes. <\/p>\n
And now I was supposed to work with this legendary figure? It wasn\u2019t easy at all to flip that switch in my mind, from child of congregants to professional colleague. That\u2019s when Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, then the Orthodox Union\u2019s chief executive, whose professional background is as a psychologist, sensed the tension.<\/p>\n
Rabbi Weinreb let the secret slip. \u201cYou know,\u201d he told me, \u201cRabbi Schonfeld loves working with one of the \u2018kids\u2019 from the shul.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he did. He would tell people in the community about it, and when I visited, he\u2019d ask me to speak about our work together. I know lot of other rabbis might have chafed at working with a congregant\u2019s kid, especially one so much younger than them. But he relished it. <\/p>\n
Because at his core, no matter what public policy issue we were working on, and no matter which leaders of government, of the Church, or of our own community were in the room, he was \u201cthe rabbi\u201d to me and my parents. And while we will miss his voice and his leadership, it is this we will miss most of all.<\/p>\n
Howie Beigelman is executive director of Ohio Jewish Communities, the statewide government advocacy, public affairs, & community relations voice of Ohio\u2019s eight Jewish federations. Previously he was Director of State Affairs & Deputy Director of Public Policy at the OU.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It wasn\u2019t until I was in my late 20s that it dawned on me that most rabbis don\u2019t start their sermons like this. As a kid I took it for granted \u2013 and as normal, usual \u2013 that Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld, zt\u201dl, would start his sermon by saying \u201cI was in Israel and decided to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[171],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituary"],"yoast_head":"\n