Rabbi William A. Rosenthall, D.D.
Rabbi 1976 - 1992
Rabbi Emeritus 1992 - 2005
Rabbi William A. Rosenthall, D.D.
Rabbi 1976 - 1992
Rabbi Emeritus 1992 - 2005
Eulogy for Rabbi William Abraham Rosenthall, D. D.
May 2, 2005
by Rabbi Anthony D. Holz, D.D.
We meet here this afternoon to pay warm tribute to William Abraham Rosenthall, an international Reform Jewish leader who for close to thirty years was the beloved rabbi and then Rabbi Emeritus of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim. A deeply caring and nurturing son, husband, and father. A genuinely kind, religious man with a sense of mission.
Born in Kenton, Ohio in 1927, Bill Rosenthall was a teenager during the Second World War. After serving in the U. S. Air Corps, he studied literature, modern languages and art at Syracuse University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1950.
Because of the Holocaust and the destruction of European Jewry, he decided to become a rabbi. He studied at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati and was ordained in 1956. While an assistant Rabbi at Washington Hebrew Congregation in Washington D.C., he met Irene Ostrower, the love of his life. After a brief and most intense courtship Bill and Irene got married in 1957. They then spent eight happy and full months studying and traveling in Israel and Europe.
Returning to the States, Rabbi Rosenthall became the Rabbi of the Woodsdale Temple in Wheeling, West Virginia. He happily served that congregation for four and a half years.
And then in February 1963, the Rosenthalls moved to New York where he became the Executive Director of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. With his knowledge of and concern for the global Jewish community, with his mastery of languages and his wide cultural interests, he was particularly well suited to lead the international organization of Reform and Liberal Jews.
During the more than ten years that Rabbi Rosenthall directed the World Union, he coordinated a wide number of activities in Jewish congregations scattered over some two dozen countries, and he administered a host of programs, publications, rabbinical activities and international conferences of the World Union. He directly helped organize new Reform, Progressive or Liberal congregations in Latin America, Israel and Europe. He conducted seminars and delivered sermons in many parts of the world.
I personally first met him during the summer of 1965. As a young rabbinic student from a World Union congregation, I arranged to visit Rabbi Rosenthall in his office in New York. From the maybe thirty minutes time I spent with him, I retain vivid memories of his broad knowledge and kindly concern, his friendly support and his gentle humor.
When the international headquarters of the World Union for Progressive Judaism was transferred from New York to Israel in 1974, Rabbi Rosenthall resigned.
A couple of years later, he accepted the position of Rabbi of Charleston’s Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim. It was in this historic congregation and in this charming city that Rabbi Rosenthall found a permanent home. When Bill and Irene came here, their children Gordon and Marcia were small. Here they grew to productive adulthood.
In Charleston, Rabbi Rosenthall led the congregation for sixteen years, caring for congregants and their spiritual needs, overseeing the expansion of the then administration building and the naming of the Sanctuary as a National Historic Landmark. In 1981, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in recognition of his long rabbinic service.
Always committed to interfaith dialogue and cooperation, Rabbi Rosenthall was a vital presence and a past president of the Charleston Christian-Jewish Council, as well as the Ministerial Association of Greater Charleston.
He retired in 1992 and was our beloved Rabbi Emeritus for the last thirteen years.
Rabbi Rosenthall was an honorary life member of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and long remained active and involved. He played a most constructive part in the International and Latin American commissions of the American Jewish Committee, as well as the Latin American Committee of the Anti-Defamation League.
And as a person with some real artistic ability as well as knowledge, Rabbi Rosenthall lectured frequently on Jewish graphic arts in Charleston, all over the United States and abroad. Selective exhibitions of his prints have been much acclaimed in Washington, D.C., Cincinnati, Charleston and Savannah. And for many years he was on the boards of the Carolina Art Association, the Collections Committee of the Gibbes Art Museum, and the Charleston Museum. He played a pivotal role in helping persuade Henry Yaschik to provide the funding which created the Jewish Studies Center of the College of Charleston.
Rabbi William Rosenthall was a major public figure in Reform Judaism and in the cultural world, nationally, internationally and locally. And yet in all this he remained essentially a very private man who kept his inner thoughts and feelings very much to himself.
His enormous compassion and generosity of spirit showed through his actions. He loved his parents and was a wonderful son and grandson. He was a great son-in-law to Irene’s mother.
He loved his children, carefully protecting them in their growing years. And he loved to keep in touch with his children sending them letters in envelopes covered with stickers and stamps from the many organizations he supported.
Bill was very charitable, always contributing to help the hungry, the homeless and all kinds of Jewish organizations. He did many things, kind deeds, that no one knew about.
He loved animals and protected them, even little bugs.
And of course, Avi (or Chaveir) his dog, helped prolong his life during the last several years. Bill enjoyed feeding him special treats. Even in difficult times, Avi could always bring a smile to Bill’s face.
But always, Irene was the vital center of his life. He would use any excuse to call Irene by phone, anytime and frequently.
Over the last years, as his physical ailments increased, Rabbi Rosenthal’s world became smaller. But he retained his humor to the end. When his death came it was a release for him and his loved ones.
Rabbi William A. Rosenthall will long be remembered… To me personally, he was my good friend and wise counselor who lived his life with integrity.
Zecher Tzaddik Livracha:
May the memory of this dedicated religious man live on as a source of enduring blessing.
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