metro » l os s a nd l eg a c y
continued from page 12
memories continued from page 14
had an impression of Judaism. He
[regularly] selected a young person to
come to the boardroom to hear him
speak.
“We would not be what we are with-
out Rabbi Adler,” Baruch said. “He is
indelibly in my mind. You saw some-
body important, you heard him and
you acted on that. He is sorely missed.
Those who knew him can never, ever
forget him.”
MILITARY SERVICE
Bernard Cantor was part of the Men’s
Club Kibbutz and remembers Rabbi
Adler’s remarkable
sense of humor. He
particularly recalls
hearing of the rabbi’s
wartime experience
as an Army chaplain
during World War II.
“He was the only
Jewish chaplain in
Bernard Cantor Japan, and he got
a written order
to come see Gen.
Douglas MacArthur, who had taken
over the emperor’s palace,” Cantor
said. “The rabbi went into a huge
ballroom and, at the end behind an
enormous desk, was MacArthur. The
rabbi told us, ‘I was going to salute,
but couldn’t remember which hand, so
I used my left.’
“MacArthur told him, ‘In the
Japanese religion, their God was the
emperor, and we have destroyed their
God. They need a religion. We are con-
sidered a Christian religion and that is
not acceptable.”
According to Cantor’s recollec-
tion of the rabbi’s story, MacArthur
wanted him to convert the Japanese to
Judaism. When the
rabbi protested that
Jewish people didn’t
do this sort of thing,
MacArthur told him,
“In this case, you do.”
He didn’t.
Many congregants
doing military ser-
Judge Avern
vice recalled getting
Cohn
handwritten letters
from Rabbi Adler.
Judge Avern Cohn, who was 15 years
old when Rabbi Adler joined Shaarey
Zedek as the associate rabbi, recalled
getting a letter from him in the
Philippines.
LOVE OF JUDAISM
Other congregants recall how he
instilled in them a desire to live an
16 March 10 • 2016
active Jewish life.
“Judaism came alive for me because
of Rabbi Adler,” said
Barbara Kratchman.
“I took two classes
from him — com-
parative religion and
Perkei Avot, and they
have remained in my
heart.”
Karen Keidan
Myerson was 14
Barbara
and in Shabbat ser-
Kratchman
vices with her father,
Herbert, when Rabbi Adler was shot.
“Rabbi Adler gave incredible ser-
mons; they were enriching,” she said.
“I would ask my dad what some of
the words meant, while I braided the
strings on his tallit.
“When the rabbi was shot, that was
the first time I saw pandemonium.
Things were very out of control, yet
many people did resourceful things.
My father called the police from the
cloak room. It was
very traumatic
because this was a
place to feel comfort-
able and safe.
“This has impact-
ed us all beyond his
death and has made
people really evalu-
Karen Keidan
ate all he did in their
Myerson
lives,” Meyerson said.
“Everyone felt they
were special to him. There was no
delineation — just warmth, wisdom
and availability, all effortlessly.
“We valued him, and something is
definitely missing with his death.”
On a lighter note, Sharon
Fleischman recalled that the Adlers
were in Israel on sabbatical when she
and Marvin wanted to set a wedding
date.
“My mother called Goldie [Adler]
and told her we wanted a Passover
wedding,” she said. “The rabbi came
home from Israel to marry us. It’s been
60 years — it took pretty well.”
Sue Smith has been at Shaarey
Zedek since she was in the fourth
grade.
“I remember when I was in conse-
cration class, and the rabbi was clean-
shaven,” she said. “Then he had whis-
kers and then, all of a sudden, he had
a beard. I told him he looked like a
beatnik or a hippie and that he should
shave it off. But he said he’d leave it for
a while.
“I loved him to pieces,” she said.
“My heart still hurts.”
*
Rabbi Adler was a mentor to young and old.
adjacent social halls were full three hours
before the 2 p.m. service began. Mourners
filled every other room in the building,
including the chapel and lobbies, where they
could listen via loud speaker, and more gath-
ered outside the building. Some had to park
close to a mile away.
The Jewish News estimated that 15,000
people headed for the synagogue but only
half actually reached the building. The rest
were stuck in traffic.
U.S. Sen. Philip A. Hart attended, as did
Romney, former Gov. Williams, Lt. Gov.
William Milliken, Detroit Mayor Jerome
Cavanagh, Archbishop John F. Dearden and
many other prominent Christian clergy. The
Israel government sent its consul for cultural
affairs. Conservative rabbis came from all
over the country.
Evelyn and Harry Becker drove in from
Elyria, Ohio. Rabbi Adler had married them
in the Philippines when he was a chaplain,
under a chuppah he made himself from a
parachute.
Louis Finkelstein, chancellor of the Jewish
Theological Seminary, delivered the princi-
pal eulogy.
The national president of B’nai B’rith, Dr.
William A. Wexler, issued a statement that
said, “The Jewish community has suffered
the loss of one of its most distinguished
scholars, whose passion for righteousness,
incisive brilliance of learning, compassion
for the troubles of others, and capacity to
articulate goodness and wisdom were har-
moniously combined in a wonderful human
being.”
Dr. Henry Hitt Crane, retired pastor of
Detroit’s Central Methodist Church and a
close friend of Adler’s, said, “He was the best
mind in this city. With him, you had a sense
of basic loyalty that was so unquestioned.
There was this complete candor and amaz-
ing graciousness, and he was incredibly
articulate because of his assiduous study and
the breadth of his sympathies. He was a total
person.”
With hundreds of cars, the procession to
Clover Hill Park Cemetery in Birmingham
tied up traffic along the route for hours.
Mandell “Bill” Berman, Detroit Jewish
community leader and philanthropist, was
one of Adler’s pallbearers.
A lifelong member of Shaarey Zedek and
now, at 98, one of its old-
est members as well as
its “honorary president
for life,” Berman was part
of the committee that
brought Rabbi Adler to
Detroit in 1938.
He usually attended
Shabbat services and,
Mandell “Bill”
as a congregation vice
Berman
president, often sat on the
bimah, but he was taking
a rare day off when the rabbi was shot. He
rushed to the synagogue when he heard the
news on the radio.
The Frank family, longtime members of
the congregation, were distraught. “I was
named at Shaarey Zedek,” said Bryna Frank,
now 84. “I was married at Shaarey Zedek.
My father was very active with Shaarey
Zedek and the Zionist Organization. Our
families were very close.”
Frank, who now lives in Farmington Hills,
said when Adler returned from his army ser-
vice she was chosen to lead him around to all
the religious school classes.
“I remember he looked so handsome in
his uniform,” she said.
After the rabbi died, the Frank family
became very close with Goldie Adler. “She
frequently invited Steve to her home,” Bryna
Frank said. “It comforted her to see him. We
would all go visit as a family.”
During the year of mourning, Rabbi
Adler’s study was locked and his chair on the
bimah remained empty.
LIFE GOES ON
The Franks thought about cancelling the
bar mitzvah party they had planned for the
evening of Feb. 12 at the Book Cadillac in
Detroit.