Obituaries
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Q: Could you comment on the safety
and practicality of funeral processions?
OBITS
from page 89
A: The Hebrew word for funeral is
LEVAYA, which means to "accompany."
It is an honor for those who accompany
someone to his or her final resting place.
We believe the safest and most effective
way for everyone to arrive at the cemetery
is together in a procession of family
and friends.
Israeli Scouts
Friendship Caravan
7:30 pm, Thurs, July 29,
Charlotte Rothstein Park,
A. Alfred Taubman
Jewish Community
Campus,
15110 W. 10 Mile Rd,
Oak Park.
Hebrew and English
and perform dances.
Show your support for Israel
and catch the spirit of
Israeli Scouts Caravan,
7:30 pm, Thurs, July 29,
at Charlotte Rothstein Park.
Sponsored by the
Jewish Community Center
and 'Federation's Supportive
Communities.'
Ten Israeli scouts sing in
Scouts share thoughts
and tell personal stories
about life in Israel.
Admission is free.
All welcome.
For more information,
contact the JCC at
(248) 967-4030
THE IRA KAUFMAN CHAPEL,
Bringing Together Family, Faith & Community
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248 569 0020 • Facsimile 248 569 2502
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90
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Renewing German Ties
Pennsylvania, he moved to New York in
1961 to become an assistant chaplain at
Columbia University and headed a
newly founded Jewish Center in the
London
Hamptons.
lbert Friedlander was 11 years
Rabbi Friedlander plunged into liberal
old during Kristallnacht, the
causes and the youth movement during
Nazi rampage in 1938 against
the 1960s, marching with the Rev.
synagogues and Jewish-owned institu-
Martin Luther King Jr. and writing the
tions.
book Never Trust a God Over 30, the
He spent the night walking the streets
title of which played on a popular slogan
of Berlin with his father only to find
of the day.
when he returned home that the police
He moved to London with his
were looking for his dad. The pair went
British-born wife, Evelyn, in 1966.
back out into the night to avoid arrest;
Rabbi Friedlander spent four years as
and soon after, they left on a boat for
rabbi of Wembley Liberal Synagogue
Cuba.
before becoming rabbi of Westminster
Three decades later, Friedlander —
by then a respected rabbi and teacher — Synagogue, where he stayed on as rabbi
and then rabbi emeritus until his death.
was persuading Jews to go to Germany
He joined the Leo Baeck College,
to rebuild ties.
Britain's training ground for Progressive
Rabbi Friedlander died July 8, 2004,
rabbis, in 1971 as director of studies and
in London of a heart attack He was 77.
"I really feel like I've lost a father," said became dean in 1982, a position he held
until his death.
Rabbi Thomas Salamon,
Salamon recalled that sat-
one of the students Rabbi
dents had "huge respect" for
Friedlander convinced to
Rabbi Friedlander and his
go to Germany. Rabbi
"close, approachable man-
Salamon's mother survived
ner." Rabbi Friedlander wrote
Auschwitz and his father
the,definitive biography of
spent World War II in hid-
his mentor in Leo Baeck:
ing in Budapest.
Teacher of Theresienstadt." -
He said at first he had no
He also wrote much about
desire to go to Germany
the Holocaust, including co-
with Rabbi Friedlander in
authoring a book with Elie
1970. "But he persuaded
The Six Days of
Wiesel,
me to spend time with him
Destruction.
in Berlin as a young rab-
If Rabbi Friedlander had a
binical student, and it
Rabbi Friedlander
flaw, Rabbi Salamon said, it
opened my eyes," Rabbi
was that his gentleness some-
Salamon said. "It healed a
times
meant he did not accom-
lot of my pain."
plish all he could have.
German-Jewish reconcilia-
"Sometimes you have to be
tion was one of many areas
tough, and that wasn't him. He
where Rabbi Friedlander built
was not naive; he saw the bad
bridges.
side of people, but then he said,
He was also active in inter-
`Can we turn something which
faith work, being named the
is not good into something
first non-Orthodox Jewish
better?" -
president of Britain's Council
Rabbi Friedlander and his wife both
of Christians and Jews and devoting
were awarded Germany's highest honor,
energy to such projects as the World
the Cross of Merit, in 1993 for their
Conference of Religions for Peace.
work on Anglo-Jewish relations.
He grew up in the United States,
He was awarded an honorary Order
where a Jewish foster family in
of the British Empire in 2001 in recog-
Mississippi took him in during World
nition of his interfaith work — the first
War II. He earned degrees from the
rabbi born outside of Britain to receive
University of Chicago and Hebrew
the honor.
Union College-Jewish Institute of
Rabbi Friedlander is survived by his
Religion.
The child of an Orthodox mother and wife and their three daughters, Michael,
Noam and Ariel, who is a rabbi in the
an atheist father, he was ordained as a
United States. ❑
Reform rabbi in 1952. After serving at
synagogues in Arkansas and
RICHARD ALLEN GREENE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
A