SPECIAL MEMORIAL ISSUE Kehilath Jeshurun Bulletin © FALL 1979 o"wn ,i RABBI JOSEPH H. LOOKSTEIN (rn n 'wk-n)" .. n•> Vsa wn tpi , "h d t 15 nx 'n tpi" And God was with Joseph And he was a successful man... [Genesis, 39:2] RABBI JOSEPH H. LOOKSTEIN DIES AT AGE 76 WAS RABBI AT CONGREGATION KEHILATH JESHURUN FOR ALMOST 56 YEARS The Week of Shiva On Friday afternoon, the 18th of Tammuz, 5739, .cor¬ The period of shiva was observed at the residence of Mrs. responding to July 13, 1979, at 4:45, Rabbi Joseph H. Joseph H. Lookstein. Throughout the week thousands of Lookstein died peacefully in Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Miami t people came through the Lookstein home in an expression of Beach. The Rabbi, who would have been 77 years old next love and respect. The minyanim were filled to Chanukah, had served in the rabbinate of Congregation overflowing. At Mincha and Ma'ariv services throughout the week there were Kehilath Jeshurun for almost 56 years. He came to the Con¬ as many people who had to remain downstairs in the gregation on Sukkot 1923. lobby of the apartment house as there were who Rabbi Lookstein had taken ill on June 28 and he remained crovyded into the apartment itself. People waited patiently to express their con¬ in the hospital for a period of fifteen days, until his passing. dolences in person to all the members of the bereaved Mrs. Lookstein, his daughter, Dr. Nathalie Friedman, and his family, including the Rabbi's brother, Arthur Lookstein, and his son, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, and son-in-law, Israel Fried¬ sister, Mrs. Sylvia Schatzman. It was a beautiful man, were at his bedside when the end came. outpouring of friendship and family solidarity. One sensed that untold When the Rabbi's coffin was brought to New York on Satur¬ numbers of people were deeply moved personally by the loss day night, there was a very large group from his extended which the Lookstein family had experienced. family of Kehilath Jeshurun which came to the airport to meet The highlights during the week of shiva were provided by the plane, to offer comfort and solace to the family and to the grandchildren of Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein who took escort the coffin back to the Riverside Memorial Chapel. The turns teaching Mishnayot in memory of their grandfather. All officers of the Congregation, many members, of Kehilath of them are either or students of Ramaz and Jeshurun, parents and officials of Ramaz and the entire graduates they not only taught the Mishnayot but they Chevra Kaddisha met the plane .at Kennedy Airport. also related each Mishna to the life and principles of their Throughout the night the members of the Chevra Kaddisha, grandfather. The Reaction in the Community augmented by several minyanim of men from the community Beginning on Friday night when, we are the Rabbi's recited T'hilim while staying with the coffin. told, picture appeared on the evening news throught the On Sunday, at 12 noon, more than 1300 mourners filled New York area, the public media reacted profoundly and extensively to the main synagogue to overflowing to participate in a final, the Rabbi's passing. Detailed and comprehensive articles ap¬ tribute to the Rabbi, which was at the same time one of the peared not alone in the New York papers, but saddest and greatest events in the recent history of New throughout the country, overseas and in Israel, in the general, Yiddish, York Jewry. The congregation was composed of young and Hebrew and press. Columns of obituaries ap¬ old. It included close friends who came in wheelchairs and lit¬ Anglo-Jewish peared in the New York Times throughout week of shiva. tle children whose parents wanted them to be part of this the Individuals, organizations and institutions wanted to record historic tribute to a man whose life had made such a major im¬ for public knowledge their gratitude to the Rabbi for having af¬ pact not alone on the Congregation and Ramaz, but upon all fected them deeply. It was a great of New York Jewry and, for that matter, the Jewish people outpouring of warmth, around the world. respect, love, concern and grief. Elsewhere in this issue of the Bulletin we have The funeral service was conducted by Rabbi Sol Roth, reprinted on¬ ly a very small sampling of the obituaries and the press spiritual leader of the Atlantic Beach Jewish Center, who was notices which appeared. the first rabbinic assistant to Rabbi Lookstein almost thirty Two Books That Tell a Story years ago and who returned to the Congregation for a term as Two books, one by the Rabbi and the other a memorial to Assistant Rabbi after his tour of duty in the chaplaincy of the him, are currently about to be made available to the communi¬ U.S. Armed Forces. Steven Schacter, the oldest grandchild ty at large. One of them is the Rabbi's second volume of of the Rabbi read a Psalm as an expression of respect from all homiletical of the grandchildren. Dr. Norman Lamm, President of Yeshiva essays entitled: "Yesterday's Faith For Tomor¬ row." It contains a beautiful collection of sermons and essays University, who also served a term as a rabbinic assistant at on many of the problems and concerns that we all face as a Kehilath Jeshurun, delivered the eulogy in behalf of the people and as individuals. This volume will be sent to the Jewish community. Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, who came to the K.J.-Ramaz family very shortly. We are sure that it will have Congregation twenty-one years ago as his father's assistant, added then offered words of tribute as a son and also as a student of meaning now as the last expression of Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein's his father. mind and pen. A volume of scholarly essays is almost The moving service was brought to its conclusion with the ready for publica¬ tion. It was intended to be a Jubilee Volume in the Rabbi's Memorial Prayer chanted by Cantor Avrum Davis. honor. It will now be The Chevra Kaddisha then carried the coffin from the published as a Memorial Volume. It con¬ tains essays from some of the most important scholars and synagogue and a procession of almost one hundred cars authors in the Jewish and formed to follow the hearse to the cemetery grounds of the general world, including, among others, Rabbi Joseph B. Dr. Norman Lamm, Dr. Congregation on Mt. Carmel in Cueens. Hundreds of men, Soloveitchik, Haym Solovietchik, Elie Wiesel, Dr. Harold Fisch, Dr. Zorach women and children of all ages participated in the burial at the Wahrhaftig and Herman Wouk. The volume also contains cemetery out of a beautiful desire to perform the last possible several act of kindness for their friend, teacher and Rabbi. scholarly essays by graduates of Ramaz. It should be ready for publication this winter and it too will be sent to the K.J.-Ramaz family. 1 "God Owes Me Nothing" In The Months Ahead For the past two years the Rabbi had been at work on his A number of specific plans are now being made which will autobiography. It is about two-thirds complete and his son help our community respond to the Rabbi's passing in a con¬ and daughter have indicated that they are going to try to finish structive and meaningful way. It is hoped that we will be able the volume. The book provides a picture of a man who lived a to give proper expression to our grief and to our resolve that great life, who affected many people and many institutions, the great work of this spiritual father of our community shall who made an impact upon Jewish history, not alone in New be continued. York City but throughout the world, and who played an impor¬ At services in Kehilath Jeshurun every morning Psalm 1 21 tant role in many of the events that took place in the crisis will be recited responsively until the completion of one year filled years between 1902 and 1979. and the observance of the yahrzeit. What Shall Be Done Now. There was a special meeting of the Board of Trustees of As we look ahead we realize that the members of the the Congregation during the week between Rosh Hashanah Kehilath Jeshurun and Ramaz community have a challenge to and Yom Kippur at which each Trustee had an opportunity to carry on the extraordinary life's work of Rabbi Joseph H. record for posterity his or her feelings about the Rabbi and Lookstein. Whatever else he was interested in, his primary how the Rabbi affected the life of this community both per¬ concerns were the congregation in which he ministered for sonally and generally. almost 56 years and the school which he founded 42 years Beginning in late Fall, a Sefer Torah will be written by the ago. Congregation and the School in memory of the Rabbi. Each It will be our task to maintain the standards of religious sen¬ member of the community, young and old, will have an oppor¬ sitivity, dignity, decorum and warmth which he implanted in tunity to participate in the writing of this Sefer Torah. Upon its this synagogue. Whenever we worship together we will completion, that Torah will become the one from which we recognize that in addition to carrying out the mitzvah of public will read every Shabbat. prayer we will be granting a measure of immortality to a man At the Ramaz dinner on Sunday, January 20, 1980 the who gave his life and soul to the service of Kehilath Jeshurun.