Comments (0)Mentor Rabbi
November 6, 2009My first years of pulpit service were at Baltimore’s Beth El, where I had the honor and privilege of being Rabbi Jacob Agus’s first assistant from 1972 to 1975. Rabbi Mark G. Loeb was gifted to serve as Rabbi Agus’s assistant, too.
Regarding your wonderful Oct. 16 tribute articles to Rabbi Mark Loeb, I add that although he was not the oldest rabbi among us, he acted as a friend and Big Brother to those of us privileged to serve this great Beth El congregation as Rabbis.
When I met with colleagues who also served as assistant rabbis at Beth El, we had similar stories. Rabbi Loeb helped us or advised us about some aspect of each of our rabbinic careers, which was of enormous help. We heard this from each other, but never from Rabbi Loeb. He did his good deeds for his colleagues at the highest level… for its own sake’, without publicizing his helpfulness with anyone else.
When I came to Detroit a decade-and-a-half ago to serve Adat Shalom Synagogue, a plant from Rabbi Loeb accompanied by a warm personal note was already on my desk. As I type, I see that 15-year-old plant on my round table in my synagogue office and think of how joyful I felt when I first noticed it. Rabbi Loeb sat with me at that round table after Adat Shalom Services on the first day of Rosh Hashanah 5769-2008 and we commented on the plant’s durability. He and I smiled. I will remember those smiles and be appreciative of being able to share tefillah with Rabbi Loeb a little more than a year ago today.
He was what you wrote: a wonderful friend and an outstanding Rabbi. I will miss him.
Rabbi Herb Yoskowitz
Farmington Hills, Mich.