310 in memoriam

opportunities to learn and to grow, and in return, Ramah was a vehicle for her to teach and to influence. Yehi zichrah baruch — may her memory continue to serve as a blessing for all who knew her.

Silverman family members attend or are alumni of the following Ramah camps and programs: Berkshires, Canada, Connecticut, Israel, New England, Nyack, Poconos, and Wisconsin:

Judah and Margo Silverman, Daniel and Rachel, Tova, Leah Lanie and Joel Goldberg, Rina, David and Rebecca, Joshua, Sarah Aviva Silverman and Mark Smiley, Yael, Dov, Benjamin Riva Silverman and Abram Heisler, Naomi, Jacob, Adina Devorah Silverman and Reuben Rotman, Zachary, Dalia, Maya

Eliot Malomet

Rabbi Israel Silverman, z"l (1928–2003)

Rabbi Israel Silverman was chairman of the Rabbinical Assembly Com­ mit­tee on Law and Standards, a member of the Rabbinical Assembly’s Va’ad Hakavod, one of the deans of the Canadian rabbinate, and one of the most respected, revered, and admired rabbis of his generation. But for almost a biblical generation — forty years — we at Camp Ramah in Canada had the privilege of calling him our rav. Rabbi Israel Silverman, of blessed memory, had a lifelong association with the Ramah Camping Movement and from the mid-1960s to before his death in 2003, he was the rav hamahaneh at Camp ˙ Ramah in Canada. Naturally, Rabbi Silverman oversaw the kashrut of the camp and func- tioned as our decision maker in matters of halachah. But as rav hamahaneh he ˙ understood that his role was much more than a mashgiah and a posek. He saw ˙ himself first and foremost as a teacher, and for many of us, he would be the single most important dugmah, religious-ethical-Torah exemplar, that we would ever have. He taught everyone, from those on the hanhalah to the lay leadership, from teachers to specialists, and from counselors to campers. He mentored and guided us and modeled for us the life of Torah and the path of mitzvot. in memoriam 311

Rabbi Silverman was a brilliant and masterful teacher. Whether it was Tanach, Mishnah, , or Maimonides’s Mishneh Torah, he had the extraordinary ability to take the most arcane, pedantic, or seemingly dis- tant text and make it come alive before our very eyes. Long before it became fashionable to adorn texts with attractive graphic layouts and visual stimuli, Rabbi Silverman relied on the power of oral transmission; rigorous explication and logic; the drama of question and answer, anecdote, and illustration; and the power of personal example to elucidate a text. He believed that a classic text had an inherent power to communicate itself; he saw himself simply as an agent to let that take place. Although he set high standards for us, Rabbi Silverman had exceptional patience and was willing to go over and over a text until, in his words, it was absolutely “crystal clear.” One could read a text a hundred times and still learn something new on the one hundred and first time, he would say. To study Torah with Rav Silverman was to experience the excitement and pleasure of Torah. Teaching Torah was his greatest joy and the greatest satisfaction of his soul. His greatest legacy is that he taught us how to love Torah. Rabbi Silverman was our link to The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) and beyond. Rarely did a class transpire without a quote from one of his many revered teachers: , Louis Finkelstein, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Mordecai Kaplan, , and H. L. Ginsberg, all of blessed memory, among others. He was a reservoir of JTS lore and rabbinic stories and when he augmented his teaching with colorful vignettes, he con- veyed to us his deep spiritual authenticity. We, his students, became recipients of this tradition, and through him we became linked to these great scholars, their teachers, and to those before them as well, all the way back to Sinai. Rabbi Silverman embodied the values of . The creative tension between halachah and aggadah resided in his soul; both Hillel and Shammai dwelled in his personality. He thought through the issues of the day with deep, pensive, and disciplined halachic logic, yet he tempered his positions with wise, gentle, and joyful aggadic compassion. During the rest of the year, he was a congregational rabbi in the “real world,” who taught Torah from Shabbat to Shabbat, presided over the life-cycle events of his con- gregants, and applied halachah to the everyday lives of individual Jews in the reality of their settings. But during the summer, he lived in the “ideal world,” a self-contained environment in which Judaism could thrive unencumbered by the daily demands of life. He thought of Camp Ramah as the greatest attempt undertaken by North American Jewry to create an ideal Jewish educational community, with the Hebrew language at its core. And how he was committed to Hebrew! He loved the opportunity to live in an environment where Hebrew 312 in memoriam

was taught and learned and spoken, and where Hebrew was the vehicle of the camp culture and sport, especially baseball! How he loved to umpire the games in Hebrew! It was our feeling — notwithstanding all of the important positions Rabbi Silverman held in the Conservative Movement and all the roles he played outside of camp — that the most important place in the world for him was Camp Ramah in Canada. He loved everything about our camp: its natu- ral Canadian beauty, its serenity, and most of all, its potential for cultivating generations of Jews and imprinting upon them the joy of Torah and the love of Jewish life. His influence on a biblical generation of campers and staff was pro- found, but in his characteristic humility, he would be the last to take credit for it. Like said of Rachel, he owed it all, he would say, to his beloved wife, Gloria, z" l. He would boast proudly that the most important reason why he loved Ramah was because of Gloria, the most important and influential yo’etzet (advisor) that Camp Ramah has ever known. To remember Rabbi Silverman at Camp Ramah in Canada is to remem- ber his profound influence on our lives, the extraordinary power of his intellect and erudition, and the way he would light up with passion and excitement and vigor and strength when he studied a classic text of the Talmud or the Rambam. To remember him is to see him seated on the mirpeset of the ­sifriyyah with a tractate before him or at a small table in his own tzerif presiding at a wonderful Shabbat kiddush. To remember Rabbi Israel Silverman is to ­lovingly recall how he and Gloria would walk hand in hand from their little tzerif toward the bamah on the eve of Shabbat, facing Skeleton Bay, a corner of God’s own creation, as if the wings of the Divine Presence herself hovered over them both. May the memory of Rabbi Israel Silverman be a blessing.

Rabbi Eliot Malomet is the spiritual leader of the Highland Park Conservative Temple – Congregation Anshe Emeth, Highland Park, New Jersey, and an alumnus of Camp Ramah in Canada.