Honoring Rabbi Gladstone’s 25 years at Temple Beth Am

             

Text of Remarks

Presented by Rabbi Marcus Burstein,

Congregation Representative, Eastern District , URJ

 

25th Anniversary Shabbat

Rabbi Gordon Gladstone

Temple Beth Am, Bayonne, NJ

June 12, 2009

 

Shabbat Shalom!  I am honored to be here tonight to share in the celebrations of Rabbi Gladstone and your congregation.  Being in Bayonne tonight makes me think of my family’s cousins club that has not met for a very long time, even before Rabbi Gladstone had arrived at Temple Beth Am.  At that time, I had a chance to see 6th, 7th, and 8th cousins, and some came from Bayonne – that branch of the family was lovingly called the “Bayonettes.”  Some of them might have even been in this sanctuary and members of the congregation.

 

One of them was Helen, a woman who in her 80s married for the first time.  I remember when she announced her engagement with great excitement declaring that at last she had found the perfect spouse.  Immediately all inquired, “Is he handsome?”  “No, not really.”  “Does he have a prestigious job?”  “No, he is retired.”  “Is he wealthy?”  “No, he just gets by.”  Does he have children who support him?”  “No, they have moved away.”  “Does he have a place in Florida?”  No, he lives here full-time.”  “So, they asked, “Why marry now after all these years?  What is so special about him?”  Helen replied, “He drives at night.”

 

I’m sure that when Rabbi Gladstone was thinking about coming to this congregation, you also had many expectations and questions for him.  Obviously, he has lived up to all of them – and he drives at night!

 

As a colleague of Rabbi Gladstone and a representative of the Reform Movement to the congregation, it is an honor to be here for this Shabbat for the start of a special weekend of festivities to honor Rabbi Gladstone for his 25 years of service to Temple Beth Am.  As we rejoice and commemorate this significant milestone, I thought it might be fun to take a walk down memory lane to think of some of the world events that happened the year that Rabbi Gladstone arrived in Bayonne – 1984.  We have to be prepared, though, because it is sure to make us feel old…

 

1984

Apple Macintosh computer introduced

Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia

Soviet Union (!!) announces it will boycott the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles

Terms of Endearment won best picture in the Academy Awards

President Ronald Reagan, during a voice check for a radio broadcast remarks, “My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever.  We begin bombing in five minutes”.

Space shuttle Discovery takes its maiden voyage

Astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her security guards

Ronald Reagan defeats Walter F. Mondale with 59% of the popular vote

And, just across the river, Bernhard Goetz, subway vigilante, incident

 

Nobel Prize for Peace – Bishop Desmond Tutu

And we lost Ansel Adams, Ethel Merman, and Yuri Andropov, General Secretary of the Community Party of the Soviet Union (b. 1914)

 

The world was definitely a different place then!  However, despite all of the changes that have taken p lace, my guess is that the job description to become the rabbi then was the same as it would be today..  You may be familiar with the want as for the perfect rabbi:  The perfect Rabbi preaches exactly fifteen minutes.  She condemns sins but never upsets anyone.  He works from 8:00am until midnight.  She makes $50 a week, wears good clothes, buys good books, drives a good car, and gives about $50 weekly to the poor.  He is 28 years old and has preached 30 years.  She has a burning desire to work with teenagers and spends all of her time with senior citizens.  The perfect Rabbi smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work.  She makes 15 calls daily to congregation families, shut-ins and the hospitalized, and is always in her office when needed.

 

Another definition of the “ideal rabbi” is a list which literally runs from A to Z:

 

After dinner speaker and administrator

Benedictor and b’nai mitzvah specialist

Comforter and counselor

Director of programs and activities

Eulogizer, editor and educator

Friend and fund raiser

Guide, go-getter, good-will ambassador

Hospital visitor, helper, ha-motzi giver

Invoker and idealist

Judge, job-finder, and jolly good fellow

Kind charmer and entertainer

Leader and lecturer

Marrier, master of ceremonies, membership pursuer

Name rememberer

Orator and organizer

Pastor, preacher and psychologist

Quiet listener and quick thinker

Rabbi

Scholar, spiritual advisor and shofar-blower

Talmudist and teacher

Unveiler of monuments and plaques

Visitor and visionary

Writer and well-wisher

Xecutive and xpert

Youth worker and youth molder

Zealot for holiness

 

So, after listening to there description, how does Rabbi Gladstone fit the bill?  I’m sure that he had demonstrated all the A to Z qualities of a rabbi that we just heard.  25 years if quite an accomplishment – just think of the number of weddings, funerals, baby namings and b’nai mitzvah ceremonies – then multiply by al least 10 for the number of committee meetings, board meetings, staff meetings and private conversations.  Rabbi Gladstone, who has served Temple Beth Am longer than any other rabbi of the congregation, almost personifies the congregation single-handedly.  A leader of the community, Rabbi Gladstone brings to mind another Jewish leader, mentioned in this week’s torah portion.

 

At the end of this week’s parsha of B’ha’alotcha, we read in Numbers 12 how God defends Moses when his siblings Miriam and Aaron speak against him.  First we read in verse 4 that “Moses was a very humble man, more so than any other human being on earth,” and soon after we read in verse 8 that God speaks to Moses “mouth to  mouth, plainly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the likeless of the Eternal.”  Your rabbi, Rabbi Gordon Gladstone, shares these qualities with Moses.  Like Moses, your rabbi did not seek out this special status for recognition.  He came to Temple Beth Am with the hopes of influencing a community, and that he did and continues to do, week after week, month after month, year after year – and now it’s been 25 years!  Even at the most challenging moments of congregational life, I’m sure that he felt that he was simply trying to live up to the job description of the perfect rabbi we heard a few moments ago.  And, like Moses, your rabbi beholds the likeness of the Eternal – he had sustained the living with compassion, he has helped the falling and brought spiritual healing to the sick, he has worked to bring freedom to the captive, and honorably memorialized those who were laid in the dust.   You have been lucky to experience the likeness of the Eternal in Rabbi Gladstone for 25 years.  May he continue to bless this lovely congregation and community for another 25 years.  Ken y’hi ratzon – may this be God’s will.  Amen.