Local News
December 27, 2002
He Showed Us How To Live
The Jewish community mourns the loss of Rabbi Ervin Preis
Baltimore
Rona S. Hirsch
Special to the Jewish Times
Even as a child growing up in England during World War II, Rabbi Ervin Preis demonstrated the qualities that would later distinguish him as a community leader. Ever watchful over his younger brother Robert, he clasped the youngster’s hand as they walked past bombed-out buildings on their way to public school in Manchester, where the family fled in 1939 from Budapest. At night, Rabbi Preis soaked up Torah learning at cheder, teaching his brother Chumash and helping him follow the High Holiday services led by their father, the late Cantor Moshe Preis.
Years later, the budding rabbi declined to officiate at Robert Preis’ wedding because he wouldn’t be ordained until the day after the ceremony, and considered himself unworthy of marrying the couple. His family didn’t understand why Rabbi Preis, a math major at New York’s Yeshiva University, was determined to lead a pulpit.
“But now, as I look around at this congregation and the large turnout, I say maybe I didn’t know my brother,” recalled Robert Preis, a Long Beach, N.Y., accountant.
Rabbi Preis, who served as spiritual leader of Suburban Orthodox-Toras Chaim Congregation since 1976 and as president of the Rabbinical Council of Greater Baltimore, died of bile duct cancer last Saturday morning, Dec. 21, in his Pikesville home. He was 67.
The funeral, held Sunday morning at the Pikesville synagogue, was attended by more than 1,500 people who crammed into the sanctuary and the halls, and stood outside the facility where a video hook-up was set up.
After the 90-minute service, the rabbi’s body was flown to Israel and buried in Beit Shemesh, where he was eulogized again by relatives and former congregants residing in Israel.
The funeral here served as a tribute to a community leader who shirked tributes throughout his 26-year tenure, a man who by all accounts preferred to celebrate the accomplishments of his congregants — his extended family — and their growth in religious observance, Torah study and commitment to Israel.
“You hated kovod [honor],” eulogized Rabbi Preis’ eldest son, Rabbi Yitzchok Preis, outreach director of the Cincinnati Community Kollel. “At [a past synagogue] tribute, you turned it into a tribute for your congregation. The pride you had for us, you had also for this mishpachah [family].”
Rabbi Preis’ younger son, Rabbi Yosef Preis, principal of the Tiferes Elimelech yeshiva in Brooklyn, N.Y., spoke of congregants’ dedication to his father. “I don’t know many [rabbinical leaders] who would [merit] this kind of kovod,” he said. “Members did so much. There was no nurse in the house. It was all his people, our people.”
Speaker after speaker recalled Rabbi Preis’ warmth, caring, kindness, scholarship, faith and humility. “He was a tzadik tamim [a completely righteous person] in every facet of his life,” said Rabbi Joshua Shapiro, rabbi emeritus of B’nai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation in Upper Park Heights. Rabbi Herman N. Neuberger, president of Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Pikesville, said the community lost one of its most valuable leaders.
“Rabbi Preis felt a tremendous responsibility not only for the shul but for the community,” he said. “He would try to find ways to solve problems — in the most unassuming, quiet and dignified way. He was a kiddush HaShem [sanctification of G-d’s name] for the Orthodox community and the larger Jewish community.”
As leader of the Rabbinical Council, Rabbi Preis maintained unity among its diverse Orthodox rabbis and served as their spokesman.
“Rabbi Preis was a man of [integrity] and of peace,” Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president of the national Union of Orthodox Congregations and former vice president of the council, told the BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES. “He was impeccably honest and reliable. And he didn’t take sides. The unity one finds in Baltimore’s Orthodox rabbinate is almost entirely attributable to him. He was a man of his word. It’s impossible to imagine how anyone can fill his shoes.”
Rabbi Preis also was praised for his unwavering devotion to his congregation, which has about 240 families and individuals. “To him, every member was deserving of his attention at any moment,” said Dr. David Sidransky, Suburban’s board chairman.
Born in 1935, Rabbi Preis left Manchester in 1951 with his family and immigrated to New York. They settled in the Bronx, neighbors of Rabbi Hershel Schachter, a prominent pulpit rabbi. “I lived under the eyes of Rabbi Schachter and I guess I thought being a rabbi might not be a bad job,” Rabbi Preis told the Jewish Times shortly before his death.
Rabbi Preis attended Yeshiva University and was ordained in 1960 by its late dean, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. But Rabbi Preis was particularly impacted by his year of study in Israel in 1957. “It was a transforming trip,” Dr. Sidransky said. “It solidified not only his love of the land and its importance for Jewish identity, but [his commitment as] a staunch Zionist.”
After graduation from Y.U., Rabbi Preis served as a chaplain in the U.S. Army from 1961-1964 at Fort Belvoir in Northern Virginia. “It was basic training to be a rabbi,” he said.
In 1963, Rabbi Preis married Anita Burnstein, whose late father, Rabbi Simon Burnstein, led the Southeast Hebrew Congregation in Washington, D.C. After Rabbi Preis’ discharge from the Army as a captain, the couple moved to the Bronx and then to his first pulpit in New London, Conn.
In 1976, Rabbi Preis moved his family of three children to Baltimore after the retirement of Suburban’s Rabbi Chaim Gevantman. “We were taken with his learning and overall philosophy,” recalled Theodore Hamburger, a congregant for 35 years. “He made an impression as a sincere and caring individual. In his own way of reaching out, he changed many aspects of the shul without alienating anyone.”
At the time, the modern Orthodox synagogue had a primarily older membership, and most congregants were not ob-servant. But as Baltimore’s Orthodox community expanded, the Pikesville neighborhood attracted young Orthodox families. As the synagogue’s demographics changed, Rabbi Preis maintained his previous membership while drawing observant newcomers.
“In other situations, with changing demographics, there is a change of rabbis,” Dr. Sidransky said. “But there were no [divisions]. Rabbi Preis was the undisputed rabbi, able to take the congregation to the next step.
“He had tremendous compassion. His pastoral skills were exemplary. He was just there for everybody. If there was an event, he was always there. If he was away and someone died, he came right back. He was very accomplished yet carried himself with tremendous humility. He shied away from any kind of honor.”
At Suburban Orthodox, Rabbi Preis brought the synagogue to more traditional observance. He removed the microphone from the sanctuary so that it would not be used during Shabbat services and enhanced the mechitzah, or partition separating men and women.
He also instituted a Tuesday evening beginners Talmud class and an advanced class on Shabbat. In addition, the congregation established a thriving community-wide Shabbat youth minyan and adult education program that brings in scholars-in-residence. Two years ago, Suburban established the Israel Action Committee.
“Rabbi Preis led and helped inspire a congregation of true religious Zionists,” said Mitchell Posner, Suburban’s president. “As individuals, we all experience that in different ways. But with his guidance, we felt we had to come together in a communal way to show our love and commitment to Israel.”
Even after Rabbi Preis fell ill three years ago and was in and out of Johns Hopkins Hospital, he remained optimistic. “He was always positive, even when the doctors said there was nothing more they can do,” said Sheldon Berman, a former board chairman and treasurer. “Rabbi Preis said, ‘Well, that’s HaShem’s will.’”
Despite his illness, Rabbi Preis managed to perform the bulk of his pastoral duties. “He was unbelievable,” said Dr. Sidransky, an oncologist at Johns Hopkins who treated him. “He was dragging himself to do what needed to be done. The shul was his life.”
When Rabbi Preis became too ill to visit his mother, Rosa, at her nursing home in Long Beach, N.Y., “he had terrible guilt,” said Robert Preis. “So we hired a woman to answer the phone for Erv to just speak to Mom.”
During their rabbi’s illness, Suburban congregants seized the opportunity to return his kindness. “Anything they can do where help was necessary — provide meals or bring a minyan to Hopkins to pray with him,” Dr. Sidransky said. “Everybody just felt whatever time he would be able to spend with the shul would be treasured.”
When the rabbi could no longer walk the short distance to the synagogue on Shabbat a few weeks ago, he attended in a wheelchair. Synagogue meetings were held in his home, and he was regularly consulted by the congregation’s leaders and by individuals with religious questions. Two weeks ago, he addressed a bar mitzvah celebrant during services.
“He showed us how to live and how to approach the inevitable,” Dr. Sidransky said. “He had immense pain that few of us could imagine. It was a special [gift] for us to see how he carried himself.”
For years, the synagogue wanted to honor the rabbi and Mrs. Preis, elementary school administrator of Yeshivat Rambam in Upper Park Heights. “He refused,” Dr. Sidransky said. “He didn’t want to be honored. He said there was no point to it.”
Rabbi Preis finally relented after he sent a letter to the congregation last Rosh Hashanah, announcing his retirement in three years. The synagogue pushed up its banquet from April to Feb. 9. But three weeks ago, Rabbi Preis told congregants during Shabbat services that “things weren’t good.”
All the while, Mrs. Preis tended to her husband, and in recent weeks brought her methodology class at Binah Seminary to her home so she would not leave him. “She did everything to comfort him and keep him well,” said Rabbi Yitzchok Preis at the funeral. “She gave up her life for him to be a rav. “
Rabbi Preis’ death was not announced to the congregation last Saturday until afternoon services because of a bat mitzvah celebration earlier that day. “The rabbi left specific instructions not to announce it if he died then,” Mr. Berman said.
Throughout his illness, prayers were recited on his behalf at several synagogues, said Rabbi Yosef Preis. But when one synagogue officer asked for his Hebrew name, a congregant responded, “Just say Rabbi Preis.”
“The shul’s president asked the congregant what he meant by that,” he said. “The congregant said, ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re right or left, Chasidic or modern Orthodox. There’s only one Rabbi Preis.’”
Rabbi Preis is also survived by his daughter, Esther Ribakow of Pikesville, and 19 grandchildren.
Suburban Orthodox leaders say they have formed a search committee and will hire a temporary rabbi in the interim.