Obituaries
Obituaries are updated regularly and archived on JN Online:
www.detroitjewishnews.com
A Compassionate,
Passionate Pioneer
Rabbi Kagan's death, 250 individuals,
including 30-35 Detroiters, had gath-
ered for a graveside service.
Jewish Outreach
Rabbi Yitschak Meir Kagan
SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
Staff Writer
Ilt
abbi Yitschak Meir Kagan
spent his last day — his
last Shabbos — in Jewish
outreach, teaching and
inspiring, doing what he liked to do
most," says his friend and colleague,
Rabbi Levi Shemtov.
Rabbi Kagan, of Oak Park, associate
director of the Lubavitch Foundation of
Michigan, died May 13, at age 59, the
result of an automobile accident in
Queens, N.Y., where he had spent the
weekend as rabbi-in-residence at a
Shabbaton for a group from the
Montreal Torah Center.
The rabbi was on route to John F.
Kennedy International Airport to return
home at 6:25 a.m. Sunday when his
rental car collided with a van. The other
driver, Glenn* Hunter, 46, of St.
Albans, N.Y., was given a summons for
speeding and was treated for minor
injuries, according to Det. Nancy Yule, a
New York police spokeswoman.
The group had been staying in a
guesthouse outside of the Montefiore
Cemetery, to be in close proximity to
the resting-place of the Lubavitcher
Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel
Schneerson, who died in 1994. Rabbi
Kagan visited the grave over the week-
end. Burial for Rabbi Kagan was held
Sunday evening at the same cemetery.
The rabbi's funeral procession began
at the Chabad-Lubavitch World
Headquarters in Crown Heights, N.Y.,
where more than 500 people waited in
the streets.
A Lubavitch fax system, several
Lubavitch Web sites and a phone squad
were used to contact individuals
throughout the world. Within hours of
5/18
2001
132
"
Rabbi Kagan was known for his deter-
mination in establishing Chabad Houses
throughout Michigan.
"He was always the trailblazer, the pio-
neer behind them," says Elimelech
Silberberg, rabbi of West Bloomfield's
Sara Tugman Bais Chabad Torah Center,
referring as well to Chabad facilities in
Flint, Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids.
"He was the front man, the one who
laid the groundwork to allow these insti-
tutions to be established."
"He singlehandedly pioneered those
places," says Rabbi Levi Shemtov, who
directs the West Bloomfield-based
Friendship Circle with his wife, Bassie.
"He went out there with the people in
those communities and now they are
each run by their own shlichim (emis-
saries). He was a mentor to many young
shlichim, including myself."
Rabbi Kagan was among the founders
of the Friendship Circle, a counseling
center that evolved into an organization
that now also serves children with special
needs.
It was through the Jewish student out-
reach movement that Leonard Baruch of
Southfield first met Rabbi Kagan. "He
worked on college campuses with kids
involved with drugs and cults," says
Baruch, who was then on the board of
directors of the Conservative
Congregation Shaarey Zedek, where he
says Rabbi Kagan often attended com-
munity-sponsored events. "He was
unusual and striking, reaching out,
counseling kids." •
Born in London, it was campus out-
reach that brought Rabbi Kagan to Oak
Park in 1965.
"If anyone ever epitomized the true
meaning of outreach, it had to be Rabbi
Kagan," Baruch says. "With his beauti-
ful smile, his gracious and welcoming
demeanor, he became the individual
who could nurture true love and corn-
passion amongst those he encountered."
Touching The Communi ty
"He acted as a bridge to various factions
of the Jewish community," says Penny
Blumenstein, president of Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. "He
helped to bring us all together. A humble
and extremely wise man with such great
respect for all parts of the community, he
felt a special warmth and caring about
Jews no matter who they were or what
their beliefs were."
Baruch says: "Rabbi Kagan's personality
was so genuine. He was so at-ease and
very, very gracious. He always had a
smile, a good word and was very, very
friendly. And this was not manufactured
for the moment. This was his calling."
Rabbi Mordechai Friedman, Rabbi
Kagan's son-in-law, says, "He was a gener-
ator — he generated happiness and made
you feel happy and excited to do what
you had to do."
"He was one of the good guys," says
Robert Aronson, the Federation's chief
executive officer. "He cared about every-
body. He was a force for unity and for
tolerance for different groups. He
believed in the totality of the Jewish peo-
ple and lived his life for them every day.
He was an unusual man of great dignity
and great humility."
Gary Torgow, president of the
Southfield-based Yeshiva Beth Yehudah
and a dose friend of Rabbi Kagan, calls
him "a wonderful advocate for Jewish
causes and in the community at large. He
was a man of vision and great vitality
whose dedication to the Jewish people
was legendary."
Making An Impact
"He was a multitalented man," Rabbi
Silberberg says of Rabbi Kagan who, just
two months agO, published the first of
his English translations of Rabbi
Schneerson's analysis of Rashi, a Chabad
International project.
Rabbi Kagan's "A Thought for the
Week" was published for many years as a
weekly series of English insights into
Torah readings, based on the teachings
of the Rebbe, mailed to Jews worldwide
and printed in Jewish newspapers. He
translated into English Hayom Yom,
Rabbi Schneerson's book of 365
Chassidic thoughts of the previous
Rebbe, and he ran his own weekly
Jewish radio program.
He wrote for many publications and
played a major role in the compilation
of The Lamplighters (Brooklyn, New
York: Merkos EInyonei Chinuch, 1988
a book including a history, photos, lette
reproductions and description of pro-
grams of Chabad-Lubavitch internation
ally.
Rabbi Kagan was among those closel
involved in the 10-year development of
the 40-acre Campus of Living Judaism
in West Bloomfield, a multimillion-dol
lar religious and educational center,
expected to open next year.
"The last several years he also travele
around the country supporting Chaba
helping out at new centers," says his
son-in-law, Rabbi Friedman.
This week, a large group of those wh
met with Rabbi Kagan in New York wi
travel to Detroit from Montreal. "He
had been brought there to inspire the
and he did that," Rabbi Shemtov says.
The evening before Rabbi Kagan's
death, one of the men called Rabbi
Shemtov. "He told me how beautiful
and inspiring Rabbi Kagan was and ho
lucky Detroit was to have him."
Rabbi Kagan is survived by his wife,
Rochel Kagan; mother, Esther Kagan
Oak Park; sons and daughters-in-law,
Rabbi Chanoch and Chana Kagan of
Brooklyn, Rabbi Levi and Elka Kagan
and Yosef Kagan of Oak Park; daught
and sons-in-law, Chaya Devorah and
Rabbi Mordechai Friedman of St. Pa
Minn. and Leah, Chana and Fraida
Kagan. of Oak Pak; brothers, Rabbi
Moshe Kagan of Los Angeles, Rabbi
Chaim Dovid Kagan and Rabbi Send
Kagan of Oak Park and numerous
grandchildren.
Contributions may be made to the
Lubavitch Foundation of Michigan,
6890 West Maple Road, West
Bloomfield, MI 48322.
❑
A community memorial gather-
ing in tribute to Rabbi Yitschak
Meir Kagan will be held at noon,
Sunday, June 3, at the Michigan
Inn, 16400 J.L. Hudson Dr.,
Southfield. For information, call
(248) 592-4444.