Alfred Gottschalk (Rabbi)
Encyclopedia
Alfred Gottschalk was a German-born
American
Rabbi
who was a leader in the Reform Judaism
movement, serving as head of the movement's Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
(HUC) for 30 years, as president from 1971 to 1996, and then as chancellor until 2000. In that role, Rabbi Gottschalk oversaw the ordination of the first women to be ordained as rabbis in the United States and Israel
, and admitted gay and lesbian students to the school's seminary. During his tenure as president, he oversaw the development of new HUC campuses in Jerusalem, Los Angeles
and New York City
, three of the school's four campuses.
, Germany on March 7, 1930 to a family that had lived in the Rhineland
for four centuries. As a child in 1937, he was admonished by his mother for leaving the house to watch Adolf Hitler
pass by in a motorcade, telling him that "A Jew risks a lot doing that". He would lose dozens of family members in The Holocaust
, and maintained a commitment to the preservation of the Jewish religion and identity exemplified by his grandfather's having given him shreds of a Torah
scroll the day after the November 1938 Kristallnacht
that had been desecrated and thrown into a river during the anti-Jewish pogrom and telling Gottschalk that "one day we will put them together again".
His father left Germany for New York City
in 1938. As a nine-year-old, Gottschalk was forced out of his classroom by a Nazi shouting "Jews, raus! [out], raus! RAUS!", an incident that his successor as President of HUC, Rabbi David Ellenson
described as being the impetus behind Gottschalk's "life's work on behalf of the Jewish people and humanity" and as one that Gottschalk would recall with "sadness, humiliation, and fury" 50 years later. After his expulsion from school, he recalled being beaten on Good Friday
by a group of Catholic boys for the death of Werner
, a Catholic boy who was said to have been killed by Jews on Maundy Thursday in the 13th century. He returned to visit his hometown of Oberwessel more than 60 years after he had left it, the only Jewish survivor of that town's small Jewish community.
He and his mother emigrated to the United States in 1939. His family settled in Brooklyn
, where he learned English
while watching films he had paid for with money he had earned shining shoes. He "once thanked Ronald Reagan
for teaching [him] English", having seen the President in many of the films he saw as a child new to the United States. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1945. He attended Boys High School and made the choice to become a Rabbi when he was 15 years old, having heard speeches from Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise
. After his father died, Gottschalk helped support the family by playing semipro football.
He earned his undergraduate degree at Brooklyn College
and then attended Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, from which he received his rabbinic ordination in 1957, simultaneously earning a master's in Hebrew literature
. In 1965, he earned his Ph.D.
in Bible and Jewish thought
from University of Southern California
with a dissertation on Ahad Ha'am, the pen name of pre-state Zionist thinker and essayist Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg.
. He succeeded Nelson Glueck
, who had died in Cincinnati in February 1971, to become Hebrew Union College's sixth president. As HUC's president, he relocated its New York City campus from the Upper West Side
to a Greenwich Village
location near New York University
.
In perpetuating and expanding the modernizing tradition of the Reform movement, Gottschalk performed the June 1972 ordination of Rabbi Sally Priesand
, the first woman to be ordained in the United States and believed to be only the second woman ever to be formally ordained in the millennia-long history of Judaism. Rabbi Gottschalk called the ordination of Priesand "historic", one that breaks stereotypes and allows "Jewish women to consider seeking the rabbinate" and a testament to Reform Judaism's efforts at achieving "equality of women in the congregation of the Lord". Priesand wept when Gottschalk spoke with her as she was handed her ordination certificate.
In 1975, Rabbi Gottschalk oversaw the designation of American Reform Judaism's first female hazzan
(cantor), Barbara Herman. In July 1992, he oversaw the "historic and symbolic" ordination of Israel's first woman rabbi, Naamah Kelman
. Starting in the late 1980s, Gottschalk began the admission of gay and lesbian students to the school. The seminary later established the Institute for Judaism and Sexual Orientation to help create opportunities for active participation by gays and lesbians in the Jewish life cycle.
Jimmy Carter
to a commission tasked with developing a memorial to the Holocaust, Gottschalk advocated on behalf of something more substantial than a monument, leading to the development of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
which opened in 1993 adjacent to the National Mall
in Washington, D.C.
As president of New York City
's Museum of Jewish Heritage
from 2000 until 2003, Gottschalk oversaw the development and fundraising for the 60000 square feet (5,574.2 m²) Robert M. Morgenthau
wing of the museum.
Gottschalk lived at homes in New York City
and Cincinnati. He died at age 79 on September 12, 2009 in a Cincinnati hospital due to complications of a traffic collision that he had in October 2008. Rabbi David Ellenson delivered a eulogy in funeral services held in Cincinnati's Isaac M. Wise Temple
.
He was survived by his second wife, the former Deanna Zeff Frank, as well as by a daughter and a son from his first wife, and their five grandchildren, together with two stepsons and their four children. His first marriage, to the former Gina Schrag, ended in divorce.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
who was a leader in the Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
movement, serving as head of the movement's Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
Hebrew Union College
The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...
(HUC) for 30 years, as president from 1971 to 1996, and then as chancellor until 2000. In that role, Rabbi Gottschalk oversaw the ordination of the first women to be ordained as rabbis in the United States and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, and admitted gay and lesbian students to the school's seminary. During his tenure as president, he oversaw the development of new HUC campuses in Jerusalem, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, three of the school's four campuses.
Early life and education
Gottschalk was born in OberweselOberwesel
Oberwesel is a town on the Middle Rhine in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Sankt Goar-Oberwesel, whose seat is in the town.-Location:...
, Germany on March 7, 1930 to a family that had lived in the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
for four centuries. As a child in 1937, he was admonished by his mother for leaving the house to watch Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
pass by in a motorcade, telling him that "A Jew risks a lot doing that". He would lose dozens of family members in The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, and maintained a commitment to the preservation of the Jewish religion and identity exemplified by his grandfather's having given him shreds of a Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
scroll the day after the November 1938 Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
that had been desecrated and thrown into a river during the anti-Jewish pogrom and telling Gottschalk that "one day we will put them together again".
His father left Germany for New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1938. As a nine-year-old, Gottschalk was forced out of his classroom by a Nazi shouting "Jews, raus! [out], raus! RAUS!", an incident that his successor as President of HUC, Rabbi David Ellenson
David Ellenson
David Ellenson is a rabbi who is known as a leader of the Reform movement in Judaism. He is the president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion , and the I.H. and Anna Grancell Professor of Jewish Religious Thought...
described as being the impetus behind Gottschalk's "life's work on behalf of the Jewish people and humanity" and as one that Gottschalk would recall with "sadness, humiliation, and fury" 50 years later. After his expulsion from school, he recalled being beaten on Good Friday
Good Friday
Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...
by a group of Catholic boys for the death of Werner
Werner of Oberwesel
Werner of Oberwesel ; b. 1271 in Womrath, Hunsrück; d. 1287) was a 16-year-old boy whose unexplained death was blamed on Jews, leading to revenge killings of Jews across Europe. He was long worshipped as a Catholic saint, and his memorial day was 19 April...
, a Catholic boy who was said to have been killed by Jews on Maundy Thursday in the 13th century. He returned to visit his hometown of Oberwessel more than 60 years after he had left it, the only Jewish survivor of that town's small Jewish community.
He and his mother emigrated to the United States in 1939. His family settled in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, where he learned English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
while watching films he had paid for with money he had earned shining shoes. He "once thanked Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
for teaching [him] English", having seen the President in many of the films he saw as a child new to the United States. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1945. He attended Boys High School and made the choice to become a Rabbi when he was 15 years old, having heard speeches from Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise
Stephen Samuel Wise
Stephen Samuel Wise was an Austro-Hungarian-born American Reform rabbi and Zionist leader.-Early life:...
. After his father died, Gottschalk helped support the family by playing semipro football.
He earned his undergraduate degree at Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
and then attended Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, from which he received his rabbinic ordination in 1957, simultaneously earning a master's in Hebrew literature
Hebrew literature
Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews...
. In 1965, he earned his Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in Bible and Jewish thought
Jewish thought
Jewish Thought is a field of Jewish Studies that deals with the products of Jewish thought and culture throughout the ages, and their historical development...
from University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
with a dissertation on Ahad Ha'am, the pen name of pre-state Zionist thinker and essayist Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg.
Hebrew Union College
After being hired by Hebrew Union College, he became dean of its campus in Los Angeles, which he relocated from the city's hillside outskirts to a site adjoining the University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
. He succeeded Nelson Glueck
Nelson Glueck
Nelson Glueck was an American rabbi, academic and archaeologist. Dr Glueck served as president of Hebrew Union College from 1947 until his death, and his pioneering work in biblical archaeology resulted in the discovery of 1,500 ancient sites....
, who had died in Cincinnati in February 1971, to become Hebrew Union College's sixth president. As HUC's president, he relocated its New York City campus from the Upper West Side
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
to a Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
location near New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
.
In perpetuating and expanding the modernizing tradition of the Reform movement, Gottschalk performed the June 1972 ordination of Rabbi Sally Priesand
Sally Priesand
Sally Jane Priesand is America's first ordained female rabbi, and the second ordained female rabbi in the world, after Regina Jonas.-Early life:...
, the first woman to be ordained in the United States and believed to be only the second woman ever to be formally ordained in the millennia-long history of Judaism. Rabbi Gottschalk called the ordination of Priesand "historic", one that breaks stereotypes and allows "Jewish women to consider seeking the rabbinate" and a testament to Reform Judaism's efforts at achieving "equality of women in the congregation of the Lord". Priesand wept when Gottschalk spoke with her as she was handed her ordination certificate.
In 1975, Rabbi Gottschalk oversaw the designation of American Reform Judaism's first female hazzan
Hazzan
A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer.There are many rules relating to how a cantor should lead services, but the idea of a cantor as a paid professional does not exist in classical rabbinic sources...
(cantor), Barbara Herman. In July 1992, he oversaw the "historic and symbolic" ordination of Israel's first woman rabbi, Naamah Kelman
Naamah Kelman
Naamah Kelman-Ezrachi is an American-born Rabbi who was named as Dean of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion campus in Jerusalem starting in July 2009...
. Starting in the late 1980s, Gottschalk began the admission of gay and lesbian students to the school. The seminary later established the Institute for Judaism and Sexual Orientation to help create opportunities for active participation by gays and lesbians in the Jewish life cycle.
Holocaust memorialization
Appointed by President of the United StatesPresident of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
to a commission tasked with developing a memorial to the Holocaust, Gottschalk advocated on behalf of something more substantial than a monument, leading to the development of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history...
which opened in 1993 adjacent to the National Mall
National Mall
The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Mall is a unit of the National Park Service , and is administered by the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
As president of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Museum of Jewish Heritage
Museum of Jewish Heritage
The Museum of Jewish Heritage, located in lower Manhattan, is a living memorial to those who perished in the Holocaust. The Museum honors those who died by celebrating their lives – cherishing the traditions that they embraced, examining their achievements and faith, and affirming the vibrant...
from 2000 until 2003, Gottschalk oversaw the development and fundraising for the 60000 square feet (5,574.2 m²) Robert M. Morgenthau
Robert M. Morgenthau
Robert Morris Morgenthau is an American lawyer. From 1975 until his retirement in 2009, he was the District Attorney for New York County, the borough of Manhattan.-Early life:...
wing of the museum.
Personal
A prolific author, he wrote more than 100 articles, books and other works.Gottschalk lived at homes in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Cincinnati. He died at age 79 on September 12, 2009 in a Cincinnati hospital due to complications of a traffic collision that he had in October 2008. Rabbi David Ellenson delivered a eulogy in funeral services held in Cincinnati's Isaac M. Wise Temple
Isaac M. Wise Temple
The Isaac M. Wise Temple is the historic synagogue erected for Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise. Rabbi Wise was the founder of American Reform Judaism. The temple building was designed by prominent Cincinnati architect James Keys Wilson.The temple is located at 720 Plum Street in Cincinnati, Ohio and was...
.
He was survived by his second wife, the former Deanna Zeff Frank, as well as by a daughter and a son from his first wife, and their five grandchildren, together with two stepsons and their four children. His first marriage, to the former Gina Schrag, ended in divorce.