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January 7, 2005/Tevet 26 5765, Vol. 57, No. 19
A rabbi's view of historical Jewish Phoenix
DEBRA MORTON GELBART
Special to Jewish News
Rabbi Albert Plotkin, "the only rabbi to graduate from the University of Notre Dame," was the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Israel in Phoenix from 1955 to 1991, which represents the longest tenure of any rabbi at any congregation in the Valley's history. Since his retirement, he has been busier than many people are during the height of their careers. We sat down with him recently to get his perspective on the Phoenix area's Jewish history and on his life today.
Q. What is your favorite memory of the Jewish community in Phoenix in the 1950s?
A. Harpo Marx was scheduled to come as part of a UJA (United Jewish Appeal) event, and I was looking forward to it because I was a great admirer of the Marx Brothers. At my very first UJA meeting here after arriving in Phoenix, UJA Chairman Harold Alpert said, "Harpo has never spoken in public. He says he'll talk if everyone will raise their UJA pledge by $5." (But) nobody did. Not a single person offered to raise their pledge. I raised my hand but no one else did.
Q. Did anything surprise you about the local Jewish community's reaction to the civil rights struggle of the 1960s?
A. Yes. I was surprised that we were not more active (as a community) in the civil rights movement. I was disappointed that there weren't more Jews who got on the bandwagon to abolish segregation in Arizona. I think Jews were a little reticent to take on that responsibility because Phoenix was a young community and they were busy worrying about establishing their businesses. And they were afraid of shaking up the community.
Q. In the 1960s and 1970s especially, you were the Valley Jewish community's primary ambassador to the non-Jewish community, serving as a spokesman for the media on Jewish issues and an educator in non-Jewish circles. How did you feel about that role?
A. I saw that there was no other spokesman for the Jewish community at that time. I purposely taught a course at Phoenix College on comparative religion to stimulate church members to deal with their questions. I became very active on the staff of All Saints' Episcopal Church; I felt it was time to teach in the churches. I wanted so much to show that the early church came out of the synagogue - that many Christian prayers, rituals and observances have their roots in Judaism.
Q. Is there anything that you wanted to accomplish at Beth Israel that you weren't able to accomplish before your retirement there?
A. I wanted to create a College of Jewish Studies based at Temple Beth Israel, but we were too busy selling the old temple building (at 10th Avenue and Flower Street in Phoenix) and looking forward to the new building in Scottsdale at the time. I wanted to create an adult education program - a real academic program that people could get degrees from. But we weren't able to establish an endowment fund for the program.
Q. Your "retirement" in 1991 has been anything but relaxed and slower-paced. Since that year, you've helped establish congregations in Glendale, Prescott, Flagstaff and Sedona, and you serve as the rabbi for the Jewish Community of Sedona. You're a VA chaplain and a resident staff lecturer at All Saints School. You're also a professor of history in the Jewish Studies Program at ASU. What drives you to do all that you continue to do?
A. What drives me is that I'm so energetic. I wasn't going to sit down and weep over what I couldn't do. I just went out and did it. I follow the rabbis' (admonition) of "talk less and do more." For me, my career has followed the three B's: belonging, believing and behaving. Those are the three things that motivate me in my retirement. There's always plenty to do to help the non-observant become more observant. That's one reason I have worked very hard to help establish congregations in Arizona.
Q. What has been your greatest satisfaction since your retirement?
A. The proudest moment of my life was walking in with the Torah to the Sedona Jewish Community's beautiful new building that just won an award (an Exemplary Building Design Award from Keep Sedona Beautiful). I had worked so hard for (more than a decade) to get the congregation established and I fought for the synagogue building to be more than just four walls. I wanted it to be integrated with the red rocks of Sedona. Today there are 300 member families in the congregation.
Q. How have you been able to persevere even after the loss of your wife Sylvia (in 1996) and daughter Debra (in 2000)?
A. When Sylvia knew she was dying, she said to me, "Honey, I don't want you to sit and mourn for me. I want you to go on with your life." My daughter said to me, "Pop, stick with it, your people still need you." The last words of my wife and daughter were (my inspiration). I was determined to go on for the sake of my other daughter, Janis. I knew that if Janis saw how active I was, she wouldn't let down either. When there's a loss, you have to find a way to heal the wound and the way to heal is by doing. My inspiration has always been the Book of Job because Job's fate was to go on despite the fact that he lost everything.
Q. The first Temple Beth Israel building at First and Culver streets really functioned as a center of Jewish activity for the entire community. The building was sold in 1949, but now it's been reclaimed by the Arizona Jewish Historical Society and renamed the Cutler_Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center. How do you see that facility serving the community in the years to come?
A. One way it serves the community is by making us aware of our American Jewish heritage. We are the oldest and largest Jewish community in the world that has lived for 350 years without significant anti-Semitism and without the persecution that we faced wherever else we lived. We were able to show the world that it was possible for Jews to be part of the community from its very inception and to make contributions through politics, literature and music. There was a place for us because we made that place. The Jewish Heeritage Center will challenge us to do more to tell the story of the Jewish experience in central and northern Arizona.
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