Of the more than 50 years that Isaac N. Lerer, spiritual leader of Temple Menorah, has been a rabbi, most have been spent in Wisconsin — and not just at Menorah.
In a telephone interview last week, Lerer, 72 — whose rabbinical career will be celebrated at a special Shabbat eve service on Friday, Oct. 11, 7 p.m. — recalled that his first pulpit was Congregation Beth Israel in Stevens Point; and his second was Congregation B’nai Abraham in La Crosse.
And it was at both of these places that this Jerusalem-born, -raised and -ordained rabbi “became so attached to Wisconsin,” he said. He discovered “warmth and respect” from both Jews and non-Jews that he did not find so readily in other parts of the United States. “That’s what Wisconsin is all about,” he said.
That’s what Lerer is about, too, according to at least two long-time members of Menorah. When David Hirsh, a retired clothier and former member of Menorah’s board, moved to Milwaukee from Chicago about 35 years ago, he and his late wife, Hilda, decided to check out Shabbat morning services at different synagogues to find the one to join.
The first shul the Hirshs visited was Menorah. Lerer “made me feel so welcome that I said to my wife, ‘We’re not going to any other. This is it.’ It’s been a love affair ever since,” Hirsh said in a recent telephone interview.
And Narda Forman, who has known Lerer since he came to Milwaukee and who was the first (and to date only) woman to be president of Menorah, said that during services, Lerer always looks over the room, and when he spies someone new, “he will have them come up and be part of the ceremony. He never misses a new face.”
Lerer left Wisconsin for Florida in 1955 and for the next nine years served congregations there and in New Jersey while pursuing his doctorate in Hebrew literature at Yeshiva University.
But the first chance he had, Lerer returned to Wisconsin in 1964 to then-Congregation Beth Hamedrosh Hagadol B’nai Shalom Anshe Sfard — whose long name reflected its origins in mergers of previous Milwaukee synagogues.
In a few months, the synagogue changed its name to Temple Menorah. In three years, it had expanded its original building on Center St. By 1978, it had moved to its present home on 76th St. near Brown Deer Rd.
Though often classified with the Milwaukee area’s Conservative synagogues, Temple Menorah does not belong to the movement. Lerer calls its orientation “traditional” and said he and the synagogue have always “gone our own way.”
That, too, will be marked at the Oct. 11 event with the dedication of the new “Mizmor Shir: Sabbath Festival Prayerbook with Psalms and Songs.” This is the fifth in a series of prayer books Lerer has made for his synagogue beginning in 1986 with a haggadah and including books for Sabbath eve and the High Holidays.
He has done this, he said, “because I know my congregation and I know their needs.” He has seen people unable to follow or participate in services and “I felt bad.”
His prayer books strive to make services meaningful and, he emphasized, include a lot of transliterations of Hebrew prayers so people who can’t read Hebrew can participate.
“My duty as a rabbi is to make sure that there is a community that we inspire and teach and train and indoctrinate our people in love of Jewish tradition,” he said.
Though he has had some recent health issues and admitted that “many times I feel tired,” Lerer has no imminent plans to retire. Not only does he “thank God” for his son Gil-Ezer Lerer as associate rabbi at Menorah, he said, but he has a box filled with notes about projects he wants to do.
“I’ve seen physicians and rabbis who once turned out to the green pastures, they vegetate,” he said. “You always have to look forward to new ideas, visions, projects.”
For more information, call the synagogue at 414-355-1120.
Loading ...