Retiring Rabbi Moved By Beth Judea Tribute

Two days after a weekend tribute honoring his 30-year career at Congregation Beth Judea, Rabbi Howard Lifshitz still seemed genuinely moved.

Sitting in his office last week, dressed in a casual shirt, Lifshitz appeared emotional as he talked about his tenure at the Long Grove synagogue and the events honoring his retirement in June.

“I would like to think I’ve made a difference in people’s lives,” the Buffalo Grove resident said, “but usually what people tell us is what (they) aren’t happy with rather than what they are really thrilled with."

“Having an opportunity like this weekend in which people tell me the positives and the impact I’ve had on their lives is very meaningful.”

The weekend featured special dinners – one of them black tie optional – and a parade of tributes from congregants to the man who guided Beth Judea from a struggling synagogue of about 200 families to a vibrant congregation of more than 600.

The tributes came from adult members, some of whom had worshipped at the synagogue as children.

“So it was not just one generation,” he said, “and that’s kind of powerful.”

It was a more-than-memorable experience for the humble, unassuming Lifshitz, who, as a youngster growing up in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood and later in Wilmette, realized that he enjoyed learning about Judaism.

“But I never thought of it as a career,” he said. “I was going to be a high school chemistry teacher.”

That idea was squelched, though, after “organic chem did me in” while attending Brandeis University.

“Then I wanted to go to graduate school and get a Ph.D. in sociology, because that’s what I really enjoyed," he said.

But that, too, changed after Lifshitz attended a speech by Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston.

Cushing talked about his role as a priest, not as a cardinal.

“And I guess I must have been ready. There must have been some opening in my mind and I realized that sounded great."

“The idea of talking about traditions and being with people in time of joy and sorrow, to talk about righteousness, justice and compassion, seemed pretty amazing to me,” he said.

So the next day, Lifshitz called his parents and announced he was heading to rabbinical school. It didn’t create much of a positive vibe.

“They had been involved in their own synagogue and had a feel for what synagogue politics was like, the pressures rabbis were put under,” he said.

His father was supportive of any decision, but told him, “you could always change your mind.”

He never did, though, and after graduating rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City, and following stints at synagogues in Southfield, Mich., and Philadelphia, he landed in 1981 at a synagogue “out in the woods” that his parents had heard might be looking for a rabbi.

“It was a wilderness,” he said of the Long Grove community back then. “I don’t think there was a stoplight in this town. I remember turning to my wife in the car and saying, ‘There is no way I’m going to be a rabbi out here in this way-out-in-the-woods place.’ ”

But as they drove around town, his wife noticed something.

“She saw all these swing sets and she said that if there are all these swing sets, there must be a lot of kids.”

So a year later, when Beth Judea expressed interest in this young rabbi from Rogers Park, he took the job.

As it turned out, he joined the synagogue at just the right time.

“The synagogue, I think, was not quite sure what it wanted to be; how traditional, how not traditional."

“I think they were looking for someone who’d provide some stability, some middle-of-the-road approach."

“I was hungry enough to take a job even though the pay was not the greatest in the world. I would take a job in which I could affect the nature of a synagogue. And it worked.”

But not without working out many issues, including balancing time with his wife, Gail; daughters Jennifer and Jessica; and the needs of the synagogue, learning to deal effectively with people’s problems and weathering times when the synagogue and its members suffered financial problems.

Through it all, though, Lifshitz said he maintained his faith in Beth Judea and its members.

What lies ahead in retirement? Lifshitz said he will remain involved in Beth Judea, but he looks forward to his first few months of having no obligations.

He will work with new Rabbi Jeffrey Pivo of Yardley, Penn., to ensure a smooth transition and will have a role in High Holiday services.

Lifshitz also looks forward to time as a “manny,” helping care for his first grandchild, touring and photographing Chicago and visiting city art museums.

“It has been the experience of a lifetime,” he said of his 30 years at Beth Judea. “The most rewarding thing is to have come to a congregation when it was in its early stages and seeing it develop into a major center of Jewish life.

“I don’t think it was my doing. I sort of rode the crest. It was the members of this community who gave to build an institution. I got the chance to see their efforts. To have been part of it has been very fulfilling.”