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Rabbi Mark G. Loeb, who served as spiritual leader of Pikesville’s Beth El Congregation for 32 years until his retirement in May 2008, died last night, Oct. 7, in Milan, reportedly of a heart attack. He was 65.
The Boston-born Rabbi Loeb, who was serving as interim spiritual leader of Beth Shalom Synagogue in the Italian city, was a major figure in national and local Jewish circles. He was a strong advocate of such issues as egalitarian worship, civil and gay rights, interfaith dialogue, integrating non-Jewish spouses into synagogue worship, banning capital punishment, and creating innovative educational initiatives.
Among his myriad endeavors, Rabbi Loeb was a former national president of Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger. He also served as chairman of the board of Baltimore Hebrew University and on the Governor of Maryland’s commission that recommended abolishing the death penalty. In 2008, he was awarded the Agus-Shehan Award for Ecumenical Service with Cardinal William Keeler by the Central Maryland Ecumenical Council.
He was also a major opera aficionado, a gourmand and epicurean, an inveterate traveler and a voracious reader. At the time of his death, Rabbi Loeb, who had bypass surgery in December, 2008, had reportedly just finished dinner at a restaurant with friends. Apparently he was walking home, did not feel well, sat down on an outside bench and then died. There are no further details about his death at this time.
Cantor Saul Z. Hammerman, Beth El’s chazzan from 1952 to 1997, died last December at age 82
Around Baltimore’s Jewish community, Rabbi Loeb was regarded as a powerhouse intellectual, a gifted orator, a straight-talking powerbroker, and an empathetic and comforting presence during difficult times.
“He was a very, very dear friend,” said Gilbert Kleiner, Beth El’s executive director. “He was at my grandson’s bris, he married me and Carol. He was not only a mentor, he was a counsel, somebody I could talk to, he bat mitzvahed my daughters, buried my father.
“At every life cycle event, he touched thousands and thousands of lives,” Mr. Kleiner said. “It has been a tough year for Beth El. We lost Saul and Mark. These were the clergy that established Beth El as what it is.”
In a statement on behalf of Jimmy Berg, chair of the board of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, and Marc B. Terrill, its president, Michelle Gordon, vice president of the executive department, wrote, “As Beth El’s spiritual leader for more than three decades, Rabbi Loeb served the congregation with reverence and distinction. In addition, he served in numerous leadership roles within the Associated and its agencies. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the members of Beth El Congregation and his many friends and colleagues throughout the community. He will be deeply missed.”
In 1976, Rabbi Loeb succeeded the late Rabbi Jacob B. Agus as spiritual leader of Beth El, a Conservative synagogue of 1,700 families. He was succeeded last year by Rabbi Steven Schwartz. Rabbi Loeb was the second spiritual leader in Beth El’s 61-year history.
“It is with a profound sense of loss and sadness that we share with you the following news. Our Rabbi Emeritus, Rabbi Mark Loeb, died last night in Milan, Italy,” Rabbi Schwartz wrote in an email to congregants. “He was there serving a congregation as its interim rabbi enjoying Milan’s culture, opera, and the many other things that he loved. We mourn his loss as a congregation and a community, and offer our sincerest sympathies to his family.”
At press time, details for Rabbi Loeb’s funeral were still being determined. Tonight between 6:30-7:30, Beth El will offer a program in which mourners can gather at the synagogue.
Rabbi Loeb earned his undergraduate degree in history and literature at Reed College in Portland, Ore. He was ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
In an interview last month with the BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES, Rabbi Loeb spoke about his affinity for retirement, particularly as the rabbi of a Milan congregation.
“I am totally at ease,” he said. “It’s much more enjoyable. There’s nothing at stake. I don’t have any anxiety over the future of the congregation as I would in Baltimore, that I have to be the best but they still might not like that.”
Of his younger years in the rabbinate, Rabbi Loeb said, “I had an intense concern for social justice issues, which for many Conservative rabbis was not a big issue. They were into Halachah [Jewish law] and changing people’s levels of observance. I wanted to engage people, to observe what they understood, sort of in a [Franz] Rosenzweigian meaning. That’s still an important issue. We need to find things that people respond to as it relates to their concerns for the world and the needs of people everywhere.”
At the time of his retirement, Rabbi Loeb told the JEWISH TIMES that he encourages Jews to study other religions as much as possible.
“Each religion sets a certain pattern and tone that draws to it certain kinds of people,” he said. “The question is, what can you see in some religions that convinces you that it has some validity for others?”
He also encouraged Jewish philanthropy to Jewish and non-Jewish institutions.
“Judaism has a history of accepting a responsibility for the downtrodden and abused,” Rabbi Loeb said. “That came out of our experience. That’s why we have to be very careful to identify with the victims. Jews are a pretty special group in terms of the way they express their support for their own causes and others. If you talk to people in the arts, they say if it weren’t for Jews, we’d be in terrible shape. It’s not just that they get their names on plaques .I think Jews have a sense of the importance of culture. We support programs, politics, scientific research, educational institutions. The Jewish community sets the tone for the whole country.”
Of his retirement at Beth El, he said, “It’s been a wonderful ride of 32 years, which amazes me. I never expected that. I’m the luckiest guy in the world. I have a wonderful congregation. I have no complaints. …
“The one theme of my rabbinate that I hope people will remember is that you don’t deal with people as you expect them and demand them to be, but you relate to people for where they are and then you try to work with them,” Rabbi Loeb said. “I see rabbis come in and kvetch, `How can I relate to these people? They don’t know anything.’ Come on, get off it. If you are going to do something, you have to behave like a person and not like a rabbi. You don’t have to have cancer to feel something for people who have cancer.
“You have to spend enough time with people who are dealing with issues of life. You project and also try to empathize, not sympathize, with the struggles they are engaged in, and hopefully you begin to pick up a good way to connect with the part of them that’s really alive.”
Sidney Friedman, a past president of Beth El and close friend of Rabbi Loeb for more than three decades, said of him, “Mark Loeb loved life, opera, Judaism and Beth El. His love for Beth El was above everything. He was a brilliant man—so bright, so quick. And he had a great ear. If I ever had a problem, he was always there for me. We didn’t always agree, but we could always talk. It’s the passing of an era. We’ve lost not only a spiritual leader but a good friend.”
Mr. Friedman recalled that after Rabbi Loeb went to Milan, he sent an email to congregants, offering a history of that city’s Jewish community.
“He was always a teacher, even then,” he said. “We’ll miss him terribly. He can’t be replaced.”
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