Reflections from Rabbi Rick Jacobs

The Enduring Legacy of Rabbi Alexander Schindler
By Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ)

I’m grateful to my beloved colleague, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and her superb clergy team, as well as to the remarkable lay leadership with which Central Synagogue has been blessed for this opportunity to share words of Torah. The leadership of the URJ is here tonight as we begin our URJ executive board meeting this weekend along with many leaders of HUC on the eve of their board meeting. That means we have much of the leadership of the Reform Movement in the sanctuary tonight.

This is Shabbat Chayei Sarah, the sabbath when we reflect on the lives of the towering biblical figures of Sarah and Abraham. Even though the Torah portion describes their deaths, we can’t help but focus on their profoundly impactful lives. And so, too, on this Shabbat as we remember Rabbi Alexander Schindler on his 25th yahrzeit. It is no exaggeration to say that Rabbi Alexander Schindler reshaped contemporary Jewish life during his 23 years leading the UAHC, now known as the URJ –the Union for Reform Judaism. During his tenure, our URJ experienced exceptional growth, from 400 member congregations in 1973, to almost 900 in 1995. 

Born in Munich, Rabbi Schindler fled Germany in 1938, arriving in the U.S. when he was just12 years old. Rabbi Schindler went on to serve in the U.S. military with the Ski Troops of the Tenth Mountain Division in Italy, earning a Purple Heart for wounds and a Bronze Star for bravery.

Assuming leadership of the Movement on its 100th anniversary, his bold vision of an inclusive, activist, soulful, and relevant Judaism has become a hallmark, not only of Reform Judaism, but also of broader Jewish life. Indeed, the most recent Pew Surveys of North American Jewish Life tell the story of almost 2 million people who identify themselves with the Reform Movement. Much of that ‘surge’ is the result of his expansive understanding of who is included in Jewish life.

Rabbi Alexander Schindler knew that the Jewish community had to remove the "not wanted" signs from the heart of our Movement. Instead of saying “keep out,” Rabbi Schindler said, “come in.” In December of 1978, Rabbi Schindler began the formal Outreach program to turn the previously harsh judgement that interfaith marriage elicited towards an elaborate series of programs that warmly welcomed interfaith families into Jewish spaces.

In our parashah when Abraham seeks to purchase a burial plot for Sarah, he identifies himself to Ephron the Hittite saying: גֵּר־וְתוֹשָׁ֥ב אָנֹכִ֖י עִמָּכֶ֑ם – “Here I’m an outsider, a stranger, not one of you.” (Genesis 23:4) Like Rabbi Buchdahl, Abraham knew well what it meant to experience the heart of a stranger, but instead of making him bitter, it made him even more committed to bringing more souls into the tent of Jewish life.

Had Rabbi Schindler not opened the hearts of our Movement to interfaith families, Rabbi Buchdahl might never have found her place in Jewish life. Can you imagine Jewish life without Rabbi Buchdahl and the thousands of interfaith families like hers? I can’t.

But lest you think Rabbi Schindler’s Outreach program was received with excitement and approval, the strong pushback tells a different story. There was even stronger resistance to his promotion of patrilineal descent as a definition of Jewishness, which said that, if either your mother or father was Jewish and you were raised as a Jew, you could be counted as a full member of the Jewish people. Defying such cynics’ warnings, our Reform Movement is now, far and away, the largest Movement in North American Jewish life.

In the 1970s, Rabbi Schindler also led the fight to include LGBTQ+ Jews in Jewish life with the decision to admit the first openly LGBTQ+ congregation, Beth Chayim Chadashim in Los Angeles, into the Reform Movement. The pushback was also fierce and immediate. His response was to double down and take up the fight for same sex marriages and officiation, which coincided with the deadly AIDS epidemic that devastated the LGBTQ+ community.

At roughly the same time that Rabbi Schindler was leading bold change within the Reform Movement, he took on the tremendously important role of Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations at one of the most consequential moments in the U.S.-Israel relationship. When Menachem Begin was elected as Israel’s prime minister in 1977, the liberal American Jewish community wasn’t sure it could work with such a right-wing Israeli leader. But Rabbi Schindler defied the prevailing sentiment and reached out to Prime Minister Begin to convey the congratulations of the entire American Jewish community, with his pledge to work closely with him. This liberal rabbi and conservative Prime Minister were a highly improbable duo who nonetheless became good friends. Their partnership was deep and warm as they navigated a turbulent period together. Rabbi Schindler modeled how to work with

political leaders with whom there were deep disagreements. Do you think that’s a useful skill for today? Hmmm.

I made my own effort to emulate Rabbi Schindler’s example, telling Prime Minister Netanyahu at our first meeting in 2012 that I hoped something of the Schindler-Begin relationship might inspire us to find commonality. For a while, we did, with his support for a compromise on non-Orthodox Jews sharing the Western Wall which his government passed, but political considerations of his increasingly right-wing governments led him to abandon such efforts.

Even with his close relationship with Begin, Rabbi Schindler believed that he had an obligation to publicly challenge Israeli policies that he believed were flawed. “Must I indulge in annexationist fantasies to prove that I am a passionate Jew?” he proclaimed. “Must I applaud this government’s every act to demonstrate my love for Israel?” Rabbi Schindler’s love of Israel included a commitment to the rights of Palestinians, which set him apart from most mainstream Jewish leaders of his day. His critique of Israeli policy, as forceful as it might be, was always done with a deep love for Israel and the Jewish people. I believe this is still the most authentic and effective way to voice public disagreements with Israel.

At the end of this week’s Torah portion, the estranged brothers, Isaac, a patriarch of the Jewish people and Ishmael, the progenitor of the Arab peoples, reunite after many years to bury their father – an image of hope that today, Arabs and Jews can find their way to reconciliation and to peace.

This 25th yahrzeit must not only make us appreciate Rabbi Schindler’s transformational leadership, but even more importantly, it must inspire us to have that same courage today. Today, Jews of Color, political conservatives, people with disabilities, and others have yet to feel that they truly belong. Rabbi Schindler’s Outreach program made it to the front page of the New York Times, but not for interfaith inclusion. Rather, it was because of his simultaneous call to welcome those who had no faith into Jewish life, as well as those who were not part of any Jewish family. Most people said Schindler was ahead of his time then, or maybe his idea is now ripe, as so many North Americans are hungry for the type of liberal faith that we love and live?

Tonight, as we remember this giant of a man, may we be inspired by his audacity and vision – for centuries from now, students of Jewish history will recount the deeds of this charismatic, principled, and eloquent man who refused to allow the Reform Movement and the wider Jewish community to be weakened because of entrenched and limited notions of what Jewish life should be.

Zichrono l’vracha – his memory is an inspiration.