To the four generations of Temple Sinai member families who looked to him simply as their rabbi, Jordan Pearlson will be remembered for his warmth, his intellect, his wisdom and his wit. But this remarkable spiritual leader was also distinguished both nationally and internationally for his devotion to interfaith relations, and his historic meetings with Pope John Paul II.Although he began his rabbinate with a single-minded focus on building Temple Sinai, literally from the ground up, he was also a Canadian member of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, and the only rabbi in the lectureship’s one hundred year history to give the Chancellor’s Lectures at Queen’s University’s School of Theology. In addition, he was the first rabbi appointed to chair the National Religious Advisory Committee to the CBC, and, from 1979 to 2004, wrote a religion column for the Toronto Star.
So reads a brief enumeration of some of the public accomplishments of our beloved founding rabbi. Frieda and Jacob Pearlson, hardworking immigrants from Kovno, Lithuania and Poland respectively, could hardly have envisioned the varied and illustrious career their first-born would shape as he began his schooling in Somerville, Massachusetts, forging footsteps his brothers had difficulty following. Melvin Pearlson remembers that when he was in the armed services, letters received from his older brother would send him scurrying in search of a dictionary so that he would understand what Jordan was talking about!
Jordan Pearlson attended engineering school at Tufts University with government assistance, but, since engineering firms were not hiring Jews, worked in the clothing business, at the same time studying electronics and mathematics at Boston University. A year-long bout with rheumatic fever disqualified him from being drafted, and was followed by enrollment at Northeastern University Law School, where he again distinguished himself. But shortly before being called to the bar, he developed a distaste for the law, once he discovered that a man for whom he was working was receiving unwarranted favours from one of the judges. Jacob Pearlson had instilled in his sons a rigorous moral compass. He had taught them what was right, and this was not their way.
Fortunately for us all, Rabbi Pearlson had developed a very close relationship with "his rebbe", Dudley Weinberg, who initiated the Abrams Fellowship at Hebrew College-Jewish Institute of Religion, with the stipulation that Jordan Pearlson be the first recipient. Rabbi Pearlson deliberated for three months before finally deciding to redirect his energies toward the rabbinate. He later remarked that he began his studies in Cincinnati with "a profound sense of homecoming". Years later, when asked how serving as a rabbi differed from practicing law, he responded in typical Rabbi Pearlson fashion, "I now have a client with whom I can consistently agree."
While still a student, he was instrumental in founding Temple Sinai in 1954, and oversaw its growth from fourteen families to close to 1800 before he retired in 1995. One of Temple Sinai’s first formal services was held in the nearby Asbury and West United Church, a remarkable occurrence in those years made possible by a gesture of good will from the congregation and its pastor, with whom Rabbi Pearlson had forged a warm relationship. This type of ecumenism was a hallmark of his rabbinate.
Only two years later, Temple Sinai began to build a permanent home, and over the next forty-one years, Rabbi Pearlson continued to innovate and stimulate. He was responsible for pioneering nursery programming for challenged children, creating Chevrat Torah, a weekly Shabbat treasure of our congregational family, featuring morning minyanim conducted by lay leadership, and maintaining personal relationships with at least three quarters of his vast congregation!
His preaching skills were legendary, and congregants unceasingly looked forward to the intellectual challenge and wit of his sermons, which traditionally commenced with the well-loved exhortation, "the time to stop talking is now!"
But as his congregational family, we can continue to be warmed by the light of his less widely known achievements: the numerous congregants he inspired to positions of leadership, and indeed, to careers in the clergy, because he shepherded by example; the generations of school children relaxed and at home at Temple because they were greeted by "hello, ticklebelly" as they entered or exited our building; the hundreds and hundreds of people whose lives he touched in remarkable ways, from conducting a funeral service for a family pet, to performing wedding ceremonies so personalized and warm that couples flocked to be married at Temple Sinai.
All of us, it seems, have a special memory or two of the particular way in which Rabbi Pearlson touched us or our family . . . . of a difference he made because of his wisdom or his compassion. We would like to collect some of these wonderful stories and assemble them in a permanent form so that they can be shared and treasured for posterity. To assist us in beginning this project, please leave a comment if you have a story to contribute to the remarkable legacy of our beloved Rabbi Pearlson.
May his memory be, for each of us, and for all those whom he loved, a profound blessing.
Marsha Zinberg
April, 2008
April, 2008
