Elliot Cosgrove, PhD March 21, 2010
If it were the case that Rabbi Milton Steinberg, z’’l, had only led this congregation from 1933 until his untimely death in 1950, building it from a sleepy Depression-era congregation to a beacon of intellectual, social, and religious activity in American life – that would have been enough. We would, as did my distinguished predecessor Rabbi David Lincoln ten years ago at Steinberg’s 50th yahrzeit, convene our community to reflect on his legacy.
If seventy years since the publication of As A Driven Leaf, we were to have a conversation on the impact of Rabbi Steinberg’s most famous novel, to debate the question of the contemporary literary appropriation of sacred texts, and to ponder the continued reception this book has had on its readers, that too – dayenu – would have been enough. If we were to have discovered, as we did, a manuscript of Steinberg’s unpublished novel, The Prophet’s Wife, and wanted to release it to the public from Rabbi Steinberg’s pulpit – dayenu – without a doubt, that would have been enough. Moreover, if we wanted to have a dialogue about the forces that gave rise to Steinberg’s intellectual profile, and ask the question of the ongoing relevance of the questions he raised for contemporary Jewry, and bring together the brightest lights of national Jewish life to do so, I am sure – dayenu – that too would be enough.
How extraordinary it is that this afternoon we are able to remember our congregational leader, to reflect on his literary legacy, to release his hitherto unseen novel, and to bring together a distinguished panel to discuss Rabbi Milton Steinberg in his historical context and raise the question of his enduring legacy. I want to thank the leadership of Park Avenue Synagogue, our chairman Steven M. Friedman, David Behrman of Behrman House Publishing, and Gary Rosenblatt of The Jewish Week for the collaborative spirit and hard work that enabled us to arrive at this literary event. Thank you to our special events lay committee led by Jean Bloch Rosensaft and to Carolyn Hessel of the Jewish Book Council; our professionals, Rabbi Julia Andelman and Marga Hirsch, and the entire PAS staff, who have worked tirelessly to make today what it is; the Behrman House team, including Dena Neusner and Jessica Gurtman, who have worked very hard; and of course, Beth Lieberman, who took a raw manuscript and rendered The Prophet’s Wife a publishable work.
Most of all, I want to acknowledge the presence of Rabbi Steinberg’s sons Dr. Jonathan Steinberg and Dr. David Steinberg and their gathered family and friends, who have extended friendship and counsel as this weekend was being planned. I am personally grateful to you for your support as I take my own steps in the long shadow of your father’s pulpit. Finally, while it is for our distinguished moderator Gary Rosenblatt to introduce our panelists, I do want to offer my deepest gratitude to Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz, Dr. Arnold Eisen, Dr. Adriane Leveen and Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schachter for your participation today, and of course to our keynote speaker, Rabbi Dr. Harold Kushner, who along with Ari Goldman and Norma Rosen, wrote prefatory essays to The Prophet’s Wife and shepherded the project to completion. To Rabbi Kushner and everyone involved in the publication of The Prophet’s Wife, I do hope that today serves as an expression of the blessing of the psalmist, “You shall enjoy the fruit of your labors; and you shall be happy and you shall prosper.” (Psalm 128)
I believe that at least part of the reason behind Milton Steinberg’s enduring legacy lies in the fact that his profile straddled a multitude of influences and interests. He was a pulpit rabbi, first in Indianapolis and then here at Park Avenue Synagogue. He held a national profile, speaking to and on behalf of North American Jewry, especially during and immediately following the Shoah, mobilizing his audience to provide relief to the refugees, to raise funds on their behalf, and to build up a fledgling State of Israel. He was a scholar, a product of a unique and cerebral moment of American Jewish history, a student at City College when it was largely composed of children of Jewish immigrant parents. Under the influence of Morris Raphael Cohen, Steinberg embodied a lifelong dialogue between Jewish sources and secular philosophy, right up until his final address months before his death. Never limited to the ivory tower, Steinberg was, and is, a popular literary figure whose books, especially As A Driven Leaf and Basic Judaism, continue to be the books most recommended by pulpit rabbis across the country.
Finally, Steinberg represents a fascinating snapshot of denominational identity. He transcends simple categorization. He was often referred to as Mordecai Kaplan’s pre-eminent disciple and spokesman for Reconstructionist Judaism (a Paul, if you will, to Kaplan’s Jesus). But as provocative discussions this weekend have revealed, these labels are somewhat facile and worthy of further exploration. Even the manner by which Steinberg got the job here at Park Avenue Synagogue reveals the inadequacy of denominational labels. As Laurie Harris explains in her article on Steinberg’s arrival at Park Avenue Synagogue in the PAS 125th anniversary volume, in 1933 Park Avenue Synagogue was a Reform temple in need of a new rabbi. The executive secretary, Manny Rosenthal, was instructed to take a Fifth Avenue bus to the seminary and find a rabbi. At the time, Fifth Avenue was two-way, and Rosenthal got on an uptown bus instead of one that went downtown to the Reform rabbinical seminary. When he asked the driver to let him off at the rabbinical school, the driver had him get off at 122nd Street, at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He got off the bus, and went to the office of Dr. Finkelstein, who realized Rosenthal was in the wrong place, but wasn’t going to miss the opportunity. He sent Steinberg to interview, Steinberg got the job, and, to make a long story short, Park Avenue Synagogue is now the flagship synagogue not of HUC-JIR, not of RRC, but of JTS. As for Orthodoxy, it is for good reason that I welcome Rabbi Dr. Schachter from YU. As correspondence I have saved from my own grandfather – an Orthodox rabbi in dialogue with Dr. Kaplan – reveals, there was a time when the question of the degree to which Reconstructionist Judaism represented a movement on its own, or merely an inflection of an existent denomination, was a very open point of discussion.
Ultimately, the book release of Steinberg’s unfinished novel serves as a ready metaphor for today’s symposium. Steinberg died before completing this book, and he also did not live long enough to write a systematic exposition of his own religious thinking. As with Puccini who died before finishing his Turandot, we do not know how he would have finished if given the opportunity. Beyond the unspeakable personal loss to the Steinberg family, the tragedy of Steinberg’s premature death is that if granted length of years, I believe that in addition to his completed work, his subsequent novels and theology would sit alongside every other post-Holocaust theologian from Heschel, Buber, and Jacobs to A.J. Wolf, Berkovitz, Soloveitchik, and beyond. The depth and range of Steinberg’s knowledge reflect an inimitable set of historical circumstances that would be difficult, if not impossible, to replicate. Any examination of Rabbi Steinberg’s legacy, today included, bears this lingering “what if.”
Yet, while the sea does not overflow, fortunately, the springs remain. In fact, on a day like today, I would call Steinberg’s enduring legacy a ma’ayan mitgaberet, a wellspring that grows stronger each day – instructive, if not required, reading for those wishing to participate in future discussions of constructive Jewish theology. The tensions that were crystallized in him, though still resonating throughout American Jewry, are on some level representative of a bygone era. Nevertheless, the forthright, clear, honest, and synthetic manner in which he conducted his quest – connected with the past, at home in traditional literature, in sympathy with humanity – remains a model that transcends the limitations of his life and the world that produced him.
May the memory of Rabbi Milton Steinberg, Harav Micha’el ben Shmuel Ha-levi, be for a blessing. I thank you for being here and for ensuring this discussion continues into the years ahead.