Rabbi Emanuel Rackman: The Death of a Great Man and a Great Leader

Rabbi Emanuel Rackman passed away yesterday. I was privileged to deliver one of the eulogies at his funeral in New York. It follows below.

Tribute to Rabbi Emanuel Rackman Z”L

When I set out to write History on Trial, my book on my trial in London where I was sued for libel by the world’s leading Holocaust denier, my editor said to me: “Deborah begin by telling your readers who you are. Let them know how you came to be the kind of person who would stand and fight the way you did.”

And so I sat down and wrote about how my parents had instilled in me a deep sense of right and wrong. Then I added the following:

When I was in first grade my parents decided to move from Manhattan to the suburbs. They chose Far Rockaway, a beach-side community in Queens, because they admired the local rabbi, Emanuel Rackman, and decided that this was the man they wanted as a spiritual leader and a role model for their children. A graduate of Columbia Law School, a man with a Ph.D., a learned rabbi, a lover of Torah// he combined knowledge of Judaism with the contemporary world. His meticulously prepared and well-crafted muscular sermons, delivered without notes, covered a wide range of topics -- everything from the weekly Torah portion, which he adored, to Arnold Toynbee, whom he abhorred.

Shortly after the fall of Stalin, during a period of Khrushchev-style perestroika, he traveled with a group of American rabbis to the Soviet Union. On the Shabbat of his return my father suggested that I stay in services during the sermon -- a time that we children generally ran all over the expansive lawn in front of Sharrey Tefila. “It will be memorable,” he assured me. Though I was not quite sure what memorable meant, I knew the trip had been something important. I did not grasp all that Rabbi Rackman said in that sermon, but I understood that he had made contact with a group of Jews who were not free to live as we did and we could not forget them. They were, he taught us, our responsibility. When I took my first trip to the Soviet Union in 1972 in order to meet with refuseniks, I remembered his words.

He was a stickler for doing things right. He insisted on decorum at services. He laughed so when I told him that as a child I thought decorum was a Hebrew word because the only place I heard it was in shul from him. Daled – yud – koof—vav –resh – mem.

A believer in intra- and inter-religious dialogue, long before it was in vogue, Rabbi Rackman reached out to people both within the Jewish community and outside of it. Right-wing religious Jews attacked and denigrated him for his attempts to demonstrate how one could -- and should -- draw upon the best in both traditional Judaism and the secular world. From the other end of the religious spectrum some would question his unwavering commitment to Halacha. How, they wondered, could such an enlightened man be so wedded to such an ancient tradition. He ignored his attackers and went on living a life that exemplified Torah u’Madah.

I remember how my father would seethe at these attacks and stress how important it was that Rabbi Rackman’s ideas not to be silenced. He believed in taking a stand and in speaking out when he saw injustice.

Long before I knew precisely what a role model was, I knew that I wanted to be just like him.*

What I did not know then and what I only learned last night from a colleague when I told him of Rabbi Rackman’s passing, was that in 1951 when Rabbi Rackman was recalled as a chaplain due to the Korean War, he discovered that his security clearance had been revoked because he opposed the death penalty for the Rosenbergs and supported Paul Robeson's right to free speech. The Air Force offered him the choice of an honorable discharge (not a dishonorable one). Had he accepted it, he would have been able to go home to his family but he would have to accept that his security clearance was rightfully revoked. Alternatively he could seek a military trial. After much thought, Rabbi Rackman took the military trial. He acted as his own lawyer, and was cleared of all charges and promoted to Colonel.

Why did he fight so hard? Because he believed that while "a person can be right or wrong on many decisions that they make, when it comes to one’s integrity, one must stand strong and never let anyone impugn it. Ultimately,” he said, “all a Rabbi has is his reputation and honor."

Rabbi Rackman was not afraid of controversy. He believed that Halachah had to live in the present and not the past. He knew that Halachah was fully up to the task. He sometimes wondered if its adherents and those who interpreted it were as well. He was willing to go out on limb and stand virtually alone when he felt that Halacha was not being allowed to rise to the challenges it faced. Such was the case when he tried to find a solution for long suffering agunot. What a terrible moment it was when he was so viciously attacked for his efforts. Would that his critics would have put as much energy into resolving the problem as they did in attacking him.

Rambam in Hilchot Talmud Torah perek hey [5] teaches about the great kavode we owe a Rav Muvhak, the teacher from whom you have learned the essence of Torah, the teacher who has shaped you. I may not have learned the majority of the things I know from Rabbi Rackman. But he gave me the rosh pinah, the cornerstone or foundation upon which I built so much of the rest of my life.

He taught me and so many others – by example as much as by words – that while one cannot fight every fight, there are certain fights from which one cannot turn away. He taught me and so many others – by example as much as by words – that sometimes, in order to live in this world, one must find ways to work together with those around you, even if you do not fully agree with them. But on certain matters he knew and was not afraid to say: here there is no room for compromise. 'ad kan, v'tu lav.

He was my Rav Muvhak.

He could be the scholar. He could be the lawyer. He could be the teacher of Torah. But he could also be a listening, caring, personally involved model of a pastor. There were a number of crucial moments in my life, particularly in my teenage and college years, when I turned to him with personal problems. He listened and he cared.

A great man walked on this earth and so many of us sitting in this room -- together with hundreds of others who were privileged to have his life intersect with theirs -- are more than just better for having had him in our lives. We are who we are, in great measure, because of him.

I have had many blessings in my life but none greater than when my father and mother chose Rabbi Emanuel Rackman as our family’s rabbi. The rest is history.

May his memory be for a blessing. Yehi zikhro barukh.

* Adapted from Deborah Lipstadt, History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier, New York, Echo Press, 2006

My thanks to Rabbis Michael Broyde, Michael Berger, David Ellenson, and David Blumenthal for their suggestions and coments.

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