When Rabbi Isaac N. Lerer celebrated his 50th year as a rabbi in 2002, he told The Chronicle (Oct. 4, 2002) that his first pulpits had been in Wisconsin and they made him feel “attached” to the state.
He said he discovered in Stevens Point and La Crosse “warmth and respect” from Jews and non-Jews that he did not find as readily in other places he had worked. “That’s what Wisconsin is all about,” he said.
Nevertheless, according to his son, Rabbi Gil-Ezer Lerer, Rabbi Isaac “almost walked away” from the Milwaukee West Side synagogue that interviewed him in 1964.
The reason? The synagogue had an uncommonly long name — Congregation Beth Hamedrosh Hagadol B’nai Shalom Anshe Sfard. The name reflected a complex story of synagogues that had merged, but also seemed to express disunity within the congregation, said Rabbi Gil-Ezer.
But the synagogue’s officials begged Rabbi Isaac to stay and “pledged to back him,” said Rabbi Gil-Ezer. So Lerer took the post, and among the first things he did was to change the congregation’s name to Temple Menorah.
He chose that because the menorah symbolized the unity of the Jewish people, with its different branches giving unified light; and because the menorah is the symbol on the official seal of the state of Israel, a very important consideration for this Jerusalem-native rabbi, said Rabbi Gil-Ezer.
His own style
On Wednesday, March 4, two days after Lerer, 78, died of the complications of a stroke, an estimated 550 people came to Temple Menorah’s 76th St. building, which was built in 1978 under Lerer’s leadership.
They bid farewell to the man who transformed this synagogue and imprinted his own style on it in ways that few if any other Milwaukee-area rabbis have done in any other local synagogue.
Not only does Menorah not affiliate with any of the organized Jewish religious denominations — though often classified with Milwaukee’s Conservative synagogues, it does not belong to the movement and characterizes itself as “traditional.”
It even uses prayer books that Lerer himself created. He told The Chronicle in 2002 that he did this “because I know my congregation and I know their needs.”
But then, he and the synagogue have always “gone our own way,” as he said in 2002, even when following community trends. Like most of Milwaukee’s non-Orthodox synagogues, Lerer and Menorah decided to move north as most of the community was doing in the decades after World War II.
However, instead of moving into the North Shore suburbs, Lerer and Menorah bought land in the city of Milwaukee’s northwest. Today, Menorah with its approximately 350 family-unit members is the only non-Orthodox synagogue still functioning within the city.
Lerer’s style also differed from that of other non-Orthodox rabbis in town in making his synagogue a family operation, literally and emotionally. The literalness is clear today in the fact that his son, Rabbi Gil-Ezer Lerer, not only followed in his professional footsteps, but also served Menorah in informal capacities even before his ordination in 1982.
But even before then, the emotional sense of family was present, according to Jack Nusan Porter. Now a social historian living in Newtonville, Mass., Milwaukee native Porter was one of the first Sunday school teachers at Menorah after Lerer arrived.
Not only was Lerer was “a wonderful mentor” who “taught me how to teach children,” but the synagogue “was like one big family even when it was on the West Side,” Porter said in a telephone interview.
Others echoed that observation. Milwaukeean Barry Hersh, 48, not only grew up as a friend of Gil-Ezer and Avi Lerer, the rabbi’s two sons, but remembered how the rabbi “truly reached out and cared for you.”
When Hersh, now a travel agent, lost his job as a radio salesperson and producer and was unemployed for a year-and-a-half, “he was there to help us and get us through it,” Hersh said.
Two who worked with Lerer as synagogue officials reported that he was “easy to work with,” according to Marshall Gantzarow, the current synagogue president and a member for more than 20 years. “We could sit down and talk about all kinds of things.”
And former synagogue president (1985-88) Sheldon Forman, M.D., recalled at the funeral how Lerer at board meetings could present ideas for projects and “make it seem like it was the board’s idea in the first place.”
Would not retire
Born in 1930 in Jerusalem, Lerer was “a brilliant child” who could recite pages of Talmud by heart and had taught himself enough English to translate radio broadcasts about World War II, said Rabbi Gil-Ezer.
In 1948, he received rabbinical ordination from Yeshiva Torah Chaim in Jerusalem. Then, because “he wanted to see the new world and further his education,” he came to the United States to study at Hebrew Theological College and Roosevelt College, both in the Chicago area.
His first pulpit was at Congregation Beth Israel in Stevens Point (1949-51); his second was Congregation B’nai Avraham in La Crosse (1951-55), during which he also was chaplain at Ft. McCoy in Tomah. During a visit to New York City around this time, he met and married Goldie Schwartz.
After serving synagogues in Florida and New Jersey, he went to New York to earn a doctorate in Hebrew literature from Yeshiva University in 1964.
While the balance of his life and career focused primarily upon Temple Menorah, Lerer also taught at local institutions, including the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and served twice as president of the Wisconsin Council of Rabbis.
But according to Rabbi Gil-Ezer, Lerer did much for people in need — members of his congregation and people in the general community — that few knew about. “He didn’t want anybody to know,” said his son.
Though he had some health problems in his final years, Lerer told The Chronicle in 2002 that he had no plans to retire.
“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.”
According to his son, Lerer was preparing to go to the synagogue to lead a Friday evening Shabbat service on Feb. 20 when he suffered the stoke that caused his death on March 2.
In addition to his son Rabbi Gil-Ezer (Debbie) Lerer and his wife Goldie, he is survived by children Dr. Chavee (Vic Mellon) Lerer of Los Angeles, Michelle Lerer of Beverly Hills and Avi (Marsha) Lerer of Skokie, Ill.; brothers Shlomo and Shmuel Lerer and sisters Tziporah Rudnitzky and Chasya Lahat, all of Israel; brother-in-law Irving Schwartz; and 12 grandchildren.
After the funeral service on March 4 at the synagogue, burial was in Temple Menorah Ever-Rest Cemetery.
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