obituaries Obituaries from page 69 Father Of Jewish Renewal Ben Harris JTA R abbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi was one of the world's most innovative and influential Jewish spiritual leaders. To his followers, he was their Chasidic rebbe. But what other rebbe had dropped acid with Timothy Leary and dialogued with the Dalai Lama? Schachter-Shalomi, who died July 3, 2014, at 89, wasn't the only rabbi who tin- kered radically with Jewish tradition. No one else, however, did so with the sense of gravitas and authenticity that came with carrying a living memory of the richness of prewar Jewish Europe. Though Jewish Renewal, the movement he helped midwife, remains marginal by the standards of the major Jewish denomi- nations, many of the ritual innovations he fostered have long since gone mainstream — from the use of musical instrumenta- tion during services to the incorporation of Eastern meditative practices. Few Jewish spiritual leaders could match the scope of his erudition, steeped as he was not only in sacred texts and Jewish mysticism but contemporary psychology and Eastern spirituality. He was a Yiddish speaker, proficient in the vernacular of modern science and computer technology, an academic capable of creating transfor- mative religious experiences for his follow- ers. "He was a whole world," said Rabbi David Ingber, spiritual leader of the Manhattan congregation Romemu and a leading figure among the younger generation of Renewal rabbis. "There was no one like him when he was alive; and now that he's gone, there will never be anyone like him:' Born in Poland in 1924 into an Orthodox family with Belzer Chasidic roots, Schachter-Shalomi was raised in Vienna and arrived in the United States in 1941. He was ordained as a Chabad rabbi but strayed far from his Orthodox roots, eventually helping to found a movement that fused the ancient and postmodern into a kind of liberal Chasidism. Like the Chasidic masters of Europe, Schachter-Shalomi encouraged his follow- ers to seek a direct experience of the divine through practices inspired by the Jewish MORE COMFORTABLE FOR YOU, IN ANY WEATHER Since we upgraded our heating and air conditioning systems and became the nation's first funeral home to use geothermal energy, we have received very positive feedback. The Chapel is warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The efficient energy system has not needed any service calls and creates a consistently comfortable environment for the families we serve and their guests. THE IRA KAUFMAN CHAPEL Bringing Together Family, Faith & Community 18325 W. 9 Mile Rd Southfield, MI 48075 • 248.569.0020 • IraKaufman.com 70 July 10 • 2014 Obituaries mystical tradition. He embraced a decidedly liberal ethos, championing equal roles for men and women in religious life, welcom- ing gays and lesbians, and promoting doc- trines like eco-kashrut that integrated con- temporary concerns into Jewish practice. Schachter-Shalomi pioneered ritual inno- vations that were groundbreaking at the time, including meditation, ecstatic dance and drums and other musical instruments in religious services. He led prayers in the vernacular, reading Torah from a scroll but translating it into English on the fly while maintaining the traditional cantillation — a feat he could carry off with seeming aplomb well into his ninth decade. Though he lost family members to the Nazis, Schachter-Shalomi believed it was a mistake to attempt a restoration of the Jewish world destroyed by the Holocaust. Instead, he felt that Jewish traditions need- ed to be renewed, harmonized with new ways of viewing reality that emerged in the 20th century. Along with the legendary composer Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Schachter- Shalomi was among the earliest emissaries dispatched by the Lubavitcher rebbe to do Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi outreach on college campuses. But he drift- ed from the strictures of Orthodoxy, explor- ing other mystical traditions and immersing himself deeply in the counterculture. He was a leading figure in the growth of the Havurah movement, the small prayer groups that emerged in the 1960s and rejected institutionalized synagogue Judaism in favor of home-based worship, presaging the rise of today's independent minyans. An inveterate boundary crosser, he declined to choose between the social jus- tice imperatives and progressive politics of Reform Judaism, the spiritual rigor and devotion of traditional Orthodoxy and the mystical impulses of Chasidism. He wanted all of them. In the 1990s, Schachter-Shalomi left Philadelphia, where he had held a teaching post at Temple University, to assume the World Wisdom chair at Naropa University, a Buddhist-inspired liberal arts college in Boulder, Colo. ❑