In the nearly 50 years that Rabbi Louis J. Swichkow was spiritual leader of Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue, there was no such thing as “Jewish time” if he could help it.
All services or events in which he was involved would start exactly at the time he designated, even if half the people attending were still shmoozing.
“We all knew that about him,” said Nate Rudman, a former president and board member of Beth El and a member of the congregation for some 40 years. “In fact, we would smile when he would start talking and the hall was a quarter-full [and] people were still milling around.”
But Swichkow, 91, who died of natural causes in Delray Beach, Fla., on Sept. 21, was a meticulous man when it came to nearly anything having to do with his synagogue, which people who knew him said “was his life.”
“He was very detail-oriented when it came to the running of the congregation,” said Rabbi Gideon Goldenholz, who followed Swichkow when he retired in 1985. “No detail escaped him.”
Moreover, he left nobody in any doubt about his views, whether involving synagogue policy or political issues.
“He was extremely strong-willed,” said Rudman. “He took very strong stands about in which direction the congregation should go.”
Rudman and Goldenholz said Swichkow opposed the more liberal tendencies in the Conservative movement. However, said Goldenholz, Swichkow “was innovative in certain aspects” of synagogue life, such as allowing women to sing in the synagogue choir.
Still, Swichkow, co-author of “The History of the Jews of Milwaukee” (1963, Jewish Publication Society), overall was very oriented toward history and tradition.
“He very much appreciated history and he used history as part of his teaching and preaching,” said Goldenholz. Moreover, Swichkow was “a true scholar. He had a very extensive knowledge of the classic sources [and] was always keeping up with what was going on in the scholarly world.”
Swichkow himself appeared to be most proud of his work as educator. In an interview with The Chronicle at the time of his retirement, Swichkow said that when he first arrived at Beth El from his native Chicago in 1937, “I was principal of the Hebrew school when we had no more than 35 students.”
By 1961, he said, some “40 percent of the children in Milwaukee who received any kind of Jewish education got it at Beth El. To this day, some of those who are called up for aliyah at other congregations who sound like they know what they’re doing got their background here.”
Swichkow did not neglect the wider Jewish community. Mel Zaret, executive vice president emeritus of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, said that Swichkow helped create the Wisconsin Council of Rabbis; and that the two of them “worked closely” to create the MJF’s Jewish Chaplaincy Program.
Above all, Swichkow was “active in the Zionist movement almost from the time he got here,” said Zaret. “He was powerful on Zionism.”
Swichkow served as chairman of the Milwaukee Zionist Emergency Council from 1943 to 1960. Goldenholz added that Swichkow also “pushed very hard” for Israel Bonds and the Jewish National Fund.
After retirement, Swichkow stayed in the Milwaukee area, moving to Delray Beach only about three years ago. There he became active in Temple Anshai Shalom; the last service he led there was on Aug. 16 to mark his wife’s birthday on Aug. 18.
He is survived by his wife, Gertrude (nee Astrachan); daughters Deborah Swichkow of Arlington, Va., and Rashalee Levine of Silver Spring, Md.; sons Daniel Swichkow of Buffalo Grove, Ill., and Morton (Judy) Swichkow of Richardson, Texas; three grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.
Private services were held Sept. 23 at Second Home Cemetery.
The family suggests memorial contributions to the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, the Jewish National Fund or the Milwaukee Jewish Home and Care Center.
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