By Leon Cohen
Rabbi Irwin E. Witty of Toronto spent only two of his 73 years in Milwaukee, but he left a permanent legacy to the city’s Jewish community.
Witty, who died in Toronto on July 30, was the first director of the Coalition for Jewish Learning, the education program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. He held that position from 1997-99.
His successor, Steven Baruch, Ph.D., had been on the first CJL board of directors and worked closely with Witty. “I enjoyed his wit, his insight, his erudition; and his experience [in education] was phenomenal,” Baruch told The Chronicle.
“He enriched the community as a teacher and as a professional” and “set the tone and paved the road” for CJL, Baruch said.
Karen Torem, CJL’s development coordinator, was one of the first co-chairs of CJL, serving with Louise Stein. She said she felt amazed not only by the breadth of Witty’s knowledge, but also by his ability to convey it to different audiences.
“He could give a class to a group of men in Yiddish about the Talmud,” she said. “Yet he could walk into a regular college class and teach educational theory.” And then “he could be like a kid with his grandchildren or other children.”
Witty had just retired from 28 years of service as executive director of the Board of Jewish Education of Metropolitan Toronto when Milwaukee offered him the post of CJL director.
He had received job offers from ten other Jewish communities, and decided to accept Milwaukee because “I felt it was an exciting enterprise,” he told The Chronicle at the time (Aug. 15, 1997 issue).
The then-new CJL had been formed as a merger of the previous Milwaukee Association for Jewish Education, which was a federation-funded organization; the Lead Communities Initiative experimental education program, created by the Mandel Foundation and overseen by MJF; and the MJF’s own educational planning and funding efforts.
To Torem, CJL came into existence as an organization that was “not just serving educators, but serving and encouraging learning throughout the entire community.”
And this fit with Witty’s own vision, she said. “He saw that learning should go on not just in schools, but in the entire community. He paved the way for CJL to be what it is.”
Witty was born in New York City in 1932. He studied at the Mirrer Yeshiva in Brooklyn, Yeshiva University (where he was ordained), Columbia University, Dropsie University and Temple University. He had been a congregational rabbi, day school teacher and day school principal before becoming director of the Toronto board in 1969.
After leaving Milwaukee, he returned to Toronto, where he lectured, taught and became executive director of the Albert and Tammy Latner Jewish Public Library.
He is survived by his wife, Shulamith; four children and 22 grandchildren.
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