Temple
Kol
Ami's
founding
rabbi
emeritus,

Rabbi

Ernst
Conrad.

E

DAVID SACHS
Copy Editor

rust J. Conrad discovered his
love of opera in his native
Berlin, and his love of baseball
in Cincinnati, where as a
teenager in 1939 he found refuge from
the Nazis.
It was in Cincinnati that he became a
Reform rabbi, and he brought his dual
passions for opera and baseball to
Oakland County, where he,established
Temple Kol Ami 35 years ago.
This Saturday, June 23, at 10:30 a.m.,
the West Bloomfield temple presents a
special Shabbat as part of a year-long cel-
ebration to honor Rabbi Conrad's 80th
birthday. Guest speaker will be the Rt.
Rev. H. Coleman McGehee, retired
Episcopal bishop and colleague of Rabbi
Conrad on the Michigan Coalition for
Human Rights.
And to further honor the rabbi's mile-
stone birthday, which occurred March
26, the white-haired and goateed diehard
Tiger fan will throw out the first ball at
Rabbi Ernst Conrad Day at Detroit's
Comerica Park on Sunday, Aug. 19.
"I'm very discouraged," said•the usual-
ly upbeat rabbi, referring to the season-
long slump that has plagued his beloved
Bengals.
But opera and baseball aside, if there
were a true dual passion in Rabbi
Conrad's 54-year rabbinic career, it
would be his deep devotion to both
Judaism and social action. And both
driving influences were developed in
response to Nazi oppression.
The 17-year-old Ernst was at the state
opera in Berlin on Nov. 9, 1938, the eve
of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken
Glass when Nazi hoodlums looted Jewish
stores and synagogues in Germany.
Hitler's second-in-command, Heimann
Goering, was at the opera, too, enjoying
the same music while knowing what evil
was about to erupt.

Narrow Escape

The young Ernst had been placed in a
Jewish orphanage in Berlin by his wid-
owed mother, whose job as matron of an
old folks home didn't provide an appro-
priate atmosphere for the young boy.
Only hours after the opera, Nazi
storm troopers, in a plan to destroy every
synagogue in Germany, burst into Ernst's
orphanage. They proceeded to rupture
the gas line over the chapel's ner tamid
(eternal flame) in an unsuccessful
attempt to set the chapel and the build-
ing ablaze.
Ernst was with the other children and
a few female attendants, hiding elsewhere

in the building.
His concern for Judaism and sensitivi-
ty for powerless minorities were
increased as he felt the Nazi oppression:
"I wondered why did they persecute
us, why all this hatred? And I wanted to
study more about it and I desired to
become a rabbi."
Nazi persecution also instilled in
Rabbi Conrad the need for social action,
"especially building bridges with other
minority groups and trying to fight prej-
udice wherever it rears its ugly head.
That's why I've been active in the Anti-
Defamation League, and on the regional
board for about 37 years," he said.
"In the U.S., I became acquainted
with the mistreatment of blacks in cer-
tain neighborhoods and I felt, beginning
then, that one ought to do something
- about improving the situation. Then,
also, extending towards Hispanic
Americans.
"A parallel interest was working with
the Christian community," added the
rabbi. "Particularly through the NCCJ
[National Conference for Community
and Justice], which has been one of our
main sources of interest here in Detroit,
along with Michigan Coalition for
Human Rights, which is also an inter-
faith, interracial and intercultural organi-
zation to bridge the gaps in understand-
ing and the still-existing segregation."
Rabbi Conrad assumed emeritus sta-
tus at Temple Kol Ami in 1986. He still
sits on the bimah and delivers an occa-
sional sermon, among many other activi-
ties.
"I am what you might call the scholar
in residence for a book club that we
have," he said. "I have a chevrat Torah
that studies Shabbat morning, 9:30-
10:30, before the service. Then we have
a group of senior citizens, most of us
meet for lunch on Thursdays, and then
we discuss current events and Jewish reli-
gious topics at temple from 1-3.
"At the Oak Park Jewish Community
Center, I'm with a Jewish discussion
group every Friday morning from 10-11.
Then I am the facilitator of an IRP
[Institute for Retired Professionals]
group and I taught at SAJE [Seminars
for Adult Jewish Enrichment] for the last
three years."
-
Rabbi Conrad's wife, Nathalie, has
been the temple's music director since its
founding, playing piano and conducting
the choir. "You might call us a rabbinical
couple," said the rabbi. The Conrads
have two children, Josef and Elsa.
Temple Kol Ami is also planning a
scholar-in-residence weekend in
November and a birthday dinner next
March in honor of Rabbi Conrad. ❑

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