Eliot M. Bernstein was an achiever even as a teen.
Bernstein, a Milwaukee attorney and Jewish community activist who died Oct. 16 at age 91, was featured in the April 24, 1940, issue of the Washington Scroll, the newspaper of Washington High School, a copy of which is in the Jewish Museum Milwaukee archive.
“Calm, self-assured, Eliot Bernstein has blazed his way through constructive arguments and rebuttals, orations and extemporaneous speeches, through music contests and journalism campaigns,” the newspaper said.
This article also mentioned that Bernstein, then a senior, had been born in New York State and had come to Milwaukee at age 6; that he was intent upon a law career; and that he intended to attend Marquette University that fall.
What the article didn’t say was that he also was active as a Jew, becoming a leader of what was then called the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization.
Bernstein did go to MU for his undergraduate degree, but had to take a World War II detour in preparing for his law career.
According to the JMM’s online exhibit “Those Who Served” about Milwaukee Jews in the U.S. military, Bernstein joined the U.S. Army in 1943. He served in the Pacific Theater in the Signal Corps until 1946, rising to the rank of sergeant.
Each of the featured people wrote for the exhibit a brief account of their “most memorable experience” during their military service. Bernstein recalled “a unique Jewish experience,” attending a Passover seder in the Dutch East Indies. “It was the first time we had any fresh vegetables in many, many months,” he wrote.
Upon completing his service, he both entered the MU law school and began his career of adult service to the Jewish community. While still a law student, he became chair of the Junior Division of the then-Milwaukee Jewish Welfare Fund (ancestor of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation).
The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle article of May 2, 1947, announcing his appointment, said that Bernstein “is well known in the community and among young people for his outstanding leadership qualities.”
As an attorney, he was the senior and managing partner of the firm Bernstein, Wessel, Weitzen & Lewis.
During a law practice of more than 60 years, Bernstein held many leadership positions within the Milwaukee Jewish community.
He served as president of the Milwaukee Board of Jewish Education and again when it was renamed the Milwaukee Association for Jewish Education (the ancestor of today’s Coalition for Jewish Learning), of Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue, of Lake Park Synagogue and of the Milwaukee Jewish Council.
He chaired the lay committee of The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle and the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s chaplaincy committee, and was vice president of Congregation Beth Jehudah and of the American Association for Jewish Education.
He won many awards for his work, including Outstanding Layman in the Field of Jewish Education from the AAJE, the MJF Young Leadership Award, and the Human Rights Award from the Anti-Defamation League.
The JMM archive preserves a statement from him during his presidency of MAJE: “In my opinion, Jewish education in Milwaukee is not indigent, incompetent or sick. It is simply immature. It has not come of age. It can, it must and it will grow if you wish it to grow.”
Bernstein was active and honored in the general community as well. He was a commissioner on the City of Milwaukee Commission on Community Relations from 1970-1986, and chaired it from 1970-1976. He served as treasurer of the Milwaukee County Social Development Commission.
He was president of the Artist Series at the Pabst, director of the Wisconsin Association of Mediators and a cabinet member of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee.
In 1997, Bernstein received the Frank Zeidler Award from the Interfaith Conference. On that occasion, Melvin S. Zaret, retired executive vice president of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, wrote a letter to The Chronicle (Dec. 12, 1997) lauding Bernstein’s achievements and character.
“An Orthodox Jew, centrist and modernist, he has worked for wholehearted respect for all streams of Judaism,” Zaret wrote. “A unifier, he taught devotees or one agency or another about community… about people and all agencies and institutions, submerging differences, planning services together, arriving at consensus, moving forward together as one people.”
“Many people have been sources of strength for the community, some for a long time, but few as consistently, quietly, humbly and with such dignity, serving as a moral and ethical presence,” Zaret wrote.
Bernstein was preceded in death by his first wife, Fay (nee Abrams). He is survived by his second wife, Kathleen (nee Kappelmann), executive director of the Jewish Museum Milwaukee; daughter Ellen Bernstein Rickun; sons Nathan (Shannon) Bernstein, Joshua (Aleyna) Bernstein and Aaron (Dr. Deborah) Bernstein; sister Doris Karp; brother-in-law Norbert Sweet; and six grandchildren.
Goodman-Bensman Whitefish Bay Funeral Home handled arrangements. Rabbis Wes Kalmar, Nachman Levine and Michel Twerski presided at the funeral on Oct. 18. Burial was in Spring Hill Cemetery.
The family requests memorial contributions to the Jewish Museum Milwaukee or the charity of the donor’s choice.
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