We have known Michael (and Janet) for
almost his entire career at Anshe Emet as our devoted and distinguished Rabbi, as
a dedicated teacher and Torah scholar, as the presider-in-chief of unbelievably
long seders (not to mention sermons), and as a close and dear family friend.
So, I’m privileged and excited to
make a toast here in his honor and to offer our thanks for his support, service,
and friendship to all of us over many years where we’ve had our ups and downs,
triumphs and losses, and challenging times, but he’s never failed to be there –
wherever and whenever needed – on every occasion.
I’m proud also that we here have
stood with, and by, and for him and his family throughout these decades as
friends, congregants and as participants together in sharing a special place
which he has painstakingly built through countless and often thankless hours, great
personal sacrifices, and years of under-appreciated hard work.
This Synagogue wouldn’t be the broad,
loving, and caring community that it has become for all of us without Rabbi
Siegel and we are beyond thankful and grateful to him for all that he has done.
When I think about what made Michael
so successful over these many years – especially in the last decade when the
Jewish world has been increasingly under attack from so many directions – I
think that his intelligence, his continuing efforts to learn and grow
personally, his always thoughtful manner and abundant patience, and his constant
empathy and concern – were all important factors.
But what distinguished his career and
made Anshe Emet the very unique home for each of us and a world-class center of
Jewish life – was that – when it would have been so easy in the face of the anger
and bitterness in the world to turn inward and to create a more closed off and
insular community – rejecting the many personal and societal changes going on
all around us – he decided that the better course was just the opposite – not
to turn away, but to reach out, to engage, and to extend himself and ourselves
to the many other parts of our city and the many other diverse groups in our
city who he believed needed what we could offer them and who, in turn, could
also help teach us - and especially our children - a great and important deal
about the world we’ll all be facing in the future and our places in it as well
as our Jewish responsibilities to it.
This was never going to be an easy
task or an uncontroversial journey in these conflicted and confusing times. It might
have been simpler to choose convenient solutions, to seek consensus rather than
challenges, and even to exhibit the kind of politically correct cowardice that
other organizations and entities have evidenced, but he believed that none of
those approaches were the right things to do. He chose to step out and lead
instead.
What we’ve been privileged to witness
and benefit from are repeated examples of the kind of unselfish and special
leadership that Rabbi Siegel exhibits every day in his own actions, in his
teachings, and as a role model and visionary for others of all ages, genders,
religions and politics.
It’s what makes him the special
leader and person that he is and it’s what makes us all so proud of him and
what he’s accomplished here over the last 40 amazing years for all of us to
have and to share and for generations to come as well.
Join me please in a toast to the past and to the future and to Rabbi Michael Siegel.
