Wednesday, November 06, 2002
Rabbi Block, retired founder of NY's Brotherhood Synagogue, dies at 79
By M. C. Dobelis
Dr. Irving J. Block, founder of the Brotherhood Synagogue in NYC, one of the
most esteemed religious leaders in the city, died on Friday, October 31, after returning home from the Beth Israel hospital, following a a long bout with the complications of Parkinson's Disease. He would have been 80 on April 17, 2003, the year of the 50th anniversary of his ordination.
Rabbi Block retired in 1994, after 41 years of rabbinical service in New York. His retirement
coincided with the 40th anniversary of the synagogue he founded, long known
as a flagship institution for bringing Jews back to Judaism, promulgating
friendship and understanding between races, religions and ethnic groups,
and caring for the homeless, the troubled and the disabled, the immigrants
and the minorities. Its mission has continued under Rabbi Daniel Alder, who
for six years had been Rabbi Block's associate.
The NYC synagogue was founded by Dr. Block and a group of like-minded
associates in 1954, and for 20 years it shared joint quarters with Rev. Dr.
Jesse W. Stitt and his Village Presbyterian Church on West 13th Street. The
ideal of a community of faiths was shared by Drs Block and Stitt, and they
traveled together, espousing their principles, in the U.S. as well as in
Germany and Israel. They were honored with awards from Bucknell University,
the Salvation Army, and many other civic and religious groups. They
appeared on "The Big Surprise," a quiz program on TV, with Dr. Block
answering questions on Christianity and Dr. Stitt on Judaism, and withdrew
when the change in the seasons interfered with the observance of Sabbath.
Only the death of Dr. Stitt and the appointment of an unfriendly minister
terminated the sharing of the quarters, and ultimately, the existence of
the Village Church.
After a year of "wandering in the wilderness," meeting in volunteered
quarters such as the NYU Loeb Student Center, in 1975 the synagogue settled
into the former Friends Meeting House at 29 Gramercy Park South, NYC, purchased
from the United Federation of Teachers. Built in 1859, reputed to have
served as an "underground railroad" stop in the pre-Civil War years, and
landmarked under the threat of destruction for a high-rise project, it was
the perfect match of the needs of a congregation and the
preservationist-minded efforts of the Gramercy Park community. The
relationship was a model of a interfaith community, and the local Christian
leaders - Dr. Thomas F. Pike of Calvary/St. George's Episcopal Parish,
Msgr. Harry Byrne of the Epiphany RC Parish and others - formed a
tight-knit ecumenical group, rotating the celebration of Thanksgiving in
each other's sanctuaries. It has survived throughout the years, a crowning
glory of liberalism and tolerance that should set example for the world.
Rabbi Block was born in Bridgeport, CT, served in the US Army in WWII, and
went back to school, majoring in accounting at the University of
Connecticut, Class of 1947. The call of his Jewish heritage brought him to
studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, 1947-48, and subsequently to
rabbinical studies at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion, in New York. During his studies in Israel he joined the Hagganah
Defense League and participated in Israel's war for independence, for which
he was recognized with the Israeli Victory medal.
Rabbi Block was ordained in 1953 by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion, from which he subsequently received the degree of
Master of Hebrew Letters, and in 1978, an honorary Doctorate of Divinity.
While serving as a student Rabbi, he decided to form a synagogue that would
attract alienated Jews and would emphasize the principles of interfaith
brotherhood and community service. He followed these principles for 41
years, and his heritage has persisted in the Brotherhood Synagogue long
after his retirement. In 1982, Brotherhood was the first Manhattan
synagogue to heed the call of NYC's Mayor Koch, asking that religious
institutions establish shelters for the homeless. The synagogue has an
award-winning afternoon Hebrew School, providing religious instruction and
Bar/Bat-Mitzvah preparation for students attending secular schools. The
synagogue has social services for the mentally challenged and provides
space for the AA and Alzheimer's support groups. There is an annual interchange of services with Christian African-American congregations. Since 10 years prior to
Rabbi Block's retirement the synagogue has provided a one-year field internship program for students of the General Theological Seminary (Episcopal). In 1992 Rabbi
Block was awarded an honorary doctorate by the GTS. .
In may 1994 Rabbi Block invited a leader of the local Muslim community, the
late Seif Ashmawy, publisher of the Voice of Peace and a voice of the Sunni
Moslems on WABC's Religion on the Line, along with the Consul-General of
Egypt and some of their adherents and family members. The congregation
opened its heart to their hopeful message and offered hope of their own. An
ordinarily skeptical Holocaust survivor showered kisses and tears on Seif..
Peace was given a chance, but not for long, and not for want of trying.
But it was not all duty and observance of civic obligations with Rabbi
Block. Congregants remember how on the Sabbath nearest St Patrick's Day he
would wear a Kelly-green yarmulka, and lace his sermon with Irish jokes;
how every Chanukah he would dress up as Judah Maccabeus, with a great
wooden spear, and conduct a dialogue with his young son Herbert, dressed as
the brother of the great Jewish hero. On Simchat Torah he was an
indefatigable dancer, carrying the big Torah.
Subsequent to retirement, Rabbi Block authored a memoir, A Rabbi and His
Dream (Ktav, 1999), with much dramatic detail of Israel's war of
independence, his ecumenical communion with the Presbyterians and the
subsequent clash, and the many conflicts that make Judaism a source of
vitality and ideas. Post-retirement, he continued with his activities on
behalf of Ethiopian Jews and Russian emigres (board member of NYANA, the NY Association for New Americans), Jews in recovery (JACS), interfaith work (chair of committee, NY Board of Rabbis) as health permitted. His past sevices include national chaplaincy of the Jewish War Veterans, of the 369th Veterans Association, and several prison chaplaincies. Cantor Eliezer Brooks, who sang Touch My Hand, Precious Lord, recites stories of Rabbi Block sponsoring this Black cantor, right in the divided 1960s, and walking with Martin Luther King to Washington in 1963.
The survivors include his widow, Dr. Phyllis Rabinove, a French scholar and
long-time synagogue volunteer; son Herbert, an attorney with the Joint Distribution Committee, looking after Jewish interests in East Europe; a daughter in law, Judith (nee Greenberg), and a two grandsons, Joseph Alexander, three, and Isaac Noam, born a week before his grandfather's death. Also, the families of his brother, A. Allen Block, the Rabbi Emeritus of Canarsie's Temple Emanu-el, and of two sisters, Lillian Danberg and Evelyn Cooperstock of Connecticut.
It is suggested that any donations in Rabbi Block's memory be made to the
Brotherhood Synagogue (212/674-5750). The memorial services on Sunday, November 3, brought 700+ mourners to the landmarked Gramercy Park structure. Rabbi Block will be interred in Israel, in the historic Mount of Olives cemetery overlooking his Jerusalem.
Dr. Irving J. Block, founder of the Brotherhood Synagogue in NYC, one of the
most esteemed religious leaders in the city, died on Friday, October 31, after returning home from the Beth Israel hospital, following a a long bout with the complications of Parkinson's Disease. He would have been 80 on April 17, 2003, the year of the 50th anniversary of his ordination.
Rabbi Block retired in 1994, after 41 years of rabbinical service in New York. His retirement
coincided with the 40th anniversary of the synagogue he founded, long known
as a flagship institution for bringing Jews back to Judaism, promulgating
friendship and understanding between races, religions and ethnic groups,
and caring for the homeless, the troubled and the disabled, the immigrants
and the minorities. Its mission has continued under Rabbi Daniel Alder, who
for six years had been Rabbi Block's associate.
The NYC synagogue was founded by Dr. Block and a group of like-minded
associates in 1954, and for 20 years it shared joint quarters with Rev. Dr.
Jesse W. Stitt and his Village Presbyterian Church on West 13th Street. The
ideal of a community of faiths was shared by Drs Block and Stitt, and they
traveled together, espousing their principles, in the U.S. as well as in
Germany and Israel. They were honored with awards from Bucknell University,
the Salvation Army, and many other civic and religious groups. They
appeared on "The Big Surprise," a quiz program on TV, with Dr. Block
answering questions on Christianity and Dr. Stitt on Judaism, and withdrew
when the change in the seasons interfered with the observance of Sabbath.
Only the death of Dr. Stitt and the appointment of an unfriendly minister
terminated the sharing of the quarters, and ultimately, the existence of
the Village Church.
After a year of "wandering in the wilderness," meeting in volunteered
quarters such as the NYU Loeb Student Center, in 1975 the synagogue settled
into the former Friends Meeting House at 29 Gramercy Park South, NYC, purchased
from the United Federation of Teachers. Built in 1859, reputed to have
served as an "underground railroad" stop in the pre-Civil War years, and
landmarked under the threat of destruction for a high-rise project, it was
the perfect match of the needs of a congregation and the
preservationist-minded efforts of the Gramercy Park community. The
relationship was a model of a interfaith community, and the local Christian
leaders - Dr. Thomas F. Pike of Calvary/St. George's Episcopal Parish,
Msgr. Harry Byrne of the Epiphany RC Parish and others - formed a
tight-knit ecumenical group, rotating the celebration of Thanksgiving in
each other's sanctuaries. It has survived throughout the years, a crowning
glory of liberalism and tolerance that should set example for the world.
Rabbi Block was born in Bridgeport, CT, served in the US Army in WWII, and
went back to school, majoring in accounting at the University of
Connecticut, Class of 1947. The call of his Jewish heritage brought him to
studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, 1947-48, and subsequently to
rabbinical studies at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion, in New York. During his studies in Israel he joined the Hagganah
Defense League and participated in Israel's war for independence, for which
he was recognized with the Israeli Victory medal.
Rabbi Block was ordained in 1953 by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion, from which he subsequently received the degree of
Master of Hebrew Letters, and in 1978, an honorary Doctorate of Divinity.
While serving as a student Rabbi, he decided to form a synagogue that would
attract alienated Jews and would emphasize the principles of interfaith
brotherhood and community service. He followed these principles for 41
years, and his heritage has persisted in the Brotherhood Synagogue long
after his retirement. In 1982, Brotherhood was the first Manhattan
synagogue to heed the call of NYC's Mayor Koch, asking that religious
institutions establish shelters for the homeless. The synagogue has an
award-winning afternoon Hebrew School, providing religious instruction and
Bar/Bat-Mitzvah preparation for students attending secular schools. The
synagogue has social services for the mentally challenged and provides
space for the AA and Alzheimer's support groups. There is an annual interchange of services with Christian African-American congregations. Since 10 years prior to
Rabbi Block's retirement the synagogue has provided a one-year field internship program for students of the General Theological Seminary (Episcopal). In 1992 Rabbi
Block was awarded an honorary doctorate by the GTS. .
In may 1994 Rabbi Block invited a leader of the local Muslim community, the
late Seif Ashmawy, publisher of the Voice of Peace and a voice of the Sunni
Moslems on WABC's Religion on the Line, along with the Consul-General of
Egypt and some of their adherents and family members. The congregation
opened its heart to their hopeful message and offered hope of their own. An
ordinarily skeptical Holocaust survivor showered kisses and tears on Seif..
Peace was given a chance, but not for long, and not for want of trying.
But it was not all duty and observance of civic obligations with Rabbi
Block. Congregants remember how on the Sabbath nearest St Patrick's Day he
would wear a Kelly-green yarmulka, and lace his sermon with Irish jokes;
how every Chanukah he would dress up as Judah Maccabeus, with a great
wooden spear, and conduct a dialogue with his young son Herbert, dressed as
the brother of the great Jewish hero. On Simchat Torah he was an
indefatigable dancer, carrying the big Torah.
Subsequent to retirement, Rabbi Block authored a memoir, A Rabbi and His
Dream (Ktav, 1999), with much dramatic detail of Israel's war of
independence, his ecumenical communion with the Presbyterians and the
subsequent clash, and the many conflicts that make Judaism a source of
vitality and ideas. Post-retirement, he continued with his activities on
behalf of Ethiopian Jews and Russian emigres (board member of NYANA, the NY Association for New Americans), Jews in recovery (JACS), interfaith work (chair of committee, NY Board of Rabbis) as health permitted. His past sevices include national chaplaincy of the Jewish War Veterans, of the 369th Veterans Association, and several prison chaplaincies. Cantor Eliezer Brooks, who sang Touch My Hand, Precious Lord, recites stories of Rabbi Block sponsoring this Black cantor, right in the divided 1960s, and walking with Martin Luther King to Washington in 1963.
The survivors include his widow, Dr. Phyllis Rabinove, a French scholar and
long-time synagogue volunteer; son Herbert, an attorney with the Joint Distribution Committee, looking after Jewish interests in East Europe; a daughter in law, Judith (nee Greenberg), and a two grandsons, Joseph Alexander, three, and Isaac Noam, born a week before his grandfather's death. Also, the families of his brother, A. Allen Block, the Rabbi Emeritus of Canarsie's Temple Emanu-el, and of two sisters, Lillian Danberg and Evelyn Cooperstock of Connecticut.
It is suggested that any donations in Rabbi Block's memory be made to the
Brotherhood Synagogue (212/674-5750). The memorial services on Sunday, November 3, brought 700+ mourners to the landmarked Gramercy Park structure. Rabbi Block will be interred in Israel, in the historic Mount of Olives cemetery overlooking his Jerusalem.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 3:22 PM 
