Susan Landau-Chark - Concordia University
Susan Landau-Chark - Concordia University
Susan Landau-Chark - Concordia University
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15<br />
manifestation of our powers of replenishment and endurance and …h[eld] within it the<br />
key to our survival”. 65<br />
The third sermon was upbeat, reporting on the 1969 United Synagogue<br />
Convention that had been attended by a “large delegation from [the] congregation.” 66 In<br />
this sermon, Rabbi Leffell emphasized the prestige that had been accrued to the<br />
synagogue as a result of one its members (the late J.Berlin) being elected Vice-President<br />
of the United Synagogue Association. 67 He paid homage to Rabbi Finkelstein for his<br />
intellectual prowess and survival skills that had helped lead the JTS and the United<br />
Synagogue movement through tumultuous times. 68 He also noted that the US Association<br />
numbered almost 850 congregations, and that being at a meeting with 3000<br />
representatives from all over the United States and Canada, each with similar concerns<br />
and issues, had been an enervating, learning experience - one that he hoped more<br />
members of the congregation would participate in during the coming years. 69<br />
Some rabbis see their role as acquiring knowledge to pass on Halakha, or Jewish<br />
Law. Others see themselves as teachers and write in the hope that their books will be read<br />
and studied, while still others see themselves as voices for their community. Rabbi<br />
Leffell came into a nascent community, “a community of positive and responsive Jews,”<br />
and as I have been told, a fractious community at times, but one that valued nonetheless<br />
his skills as an orator, his approach to community and wholeheartedly accepted him as<br />
their “Captain.” These notes and sermons are what we have of Rabbi Leffell’s written<br />
legacy - no books, pamphlets, or printed sermons (other than his retirement address) - that<br />
65<br />
Ibid. 6.<br />
66<br />
Rabbi A. B. Leffell, “Vayera” (November 1, 1969): 1 CD-Rom 2004.<br />
67<br />
Ibid.<br />
68<br />
Ibid.<br />
69<br />
Ibid.