good morning welcome to mosaic i am rabbi eric and honored to be your host. a history of relationships among ourselves one of the most potent is the relationship that a clergy lesong the community so in the lifetime of a clergy it says if he or she embodies the history of a place, we are honored to have with us the senior rabbi em eritus who just celebrated 50 years. welcome rabbi weaner. >> it is a delight to be on

mosaic truly a privilege and very strange in terms of 50 years passing. >> so let's rewind to the beginning you actually are born and raised in san francisco, what drew you in those years to the rabbinate itself. >> washington high school, uc berkeley, native san franciscan. i was not raised as a reform jew but actually as a conservative jew with 14th avenue synagogue. i probably first got started in a couple different ways i entered a speech contest and happened to have been honored to win that and there had been a lot of rabbis who had won that award i also taught at beth sholem during my uc berkeley years those things put together focused on three

issues i had a very special feeling about judaism i really wanted to help people and i think the rabbinate is a people profession and i enjoyed speaking putting all that together i was still choosing between being an attorney and a rabbi when i met my wife in college i told her i was either going to be a crabby or lawyer and they -- rabbi or a lawyer and she thought i was going to be an attorney i am the son of, father of, brother of, cousin of attorneys but in the end i decided to be a rabbi and it has been a wonderful wonderful life experience. >> born and raised in san francisco, you are a native san franciscan were your parents immigrants? >> no, my folks were both born in america of course my grandparents were born in the old country but my folks originally were from new york but then came to san francisco. >> and how would you -- it is a big question how would you

characterize jewish life in those years in san francisco itself. >> um, well, from my point of view, it was a very lovely experience of going to hebrew school and bar mitzvah training but still not a very intense jewish community i would say. that changed a lot after the 6 day war all across america where there was a sense of jewish pride that came with israel's independence and then victory in the 6 day war that changed san francisco in many many ways, a couple examples, the confirmation class trip which was established by brian leury was a tremendous gift to the community it ended up nearly all teens visited israel

that created a bond with the land and also with jewish tradition i think was very important. religiously things changed used to be when a baby was born there wasn't much emphasis at least among more progressive jews on traditional circumcision rite that seemed to change over the years more kids wanted to be bar mitzvah and bat mitt have a. that was interesting i can still remember when it was unheard of for a woman to be called to the torre even in some reform synagogues to say the blessing yet over the years in -- when i came in the 70s that had just begun and of course, women rabbis. very pleased that our congregation invited one of the first women rabinical students to come serve for a year as an

intern. the pressures were such she was thinking of dropping out but had such a nice experience with us she went on to be the president of her rabbinical school class and serve many years on the east coast. colleagues and the role of women in the synagogue, that was among many things that changed over the years. >> fascinating you have already touched on some historic elements that you have lived through that embody the life of judaism in the country. we will take a really quick break and come back to mosaic in just a moment

good morning welcome back. i am honored to be your host we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation with the

senior rabbi emmeritus. welcome back. >> good to be back. >> you were talking about the six day war that changed gender role and authority within the jewish landscape i am wondering what was that gender shift like i think for so many people in the broader bay area, women clergy is a common place yet you embody in your life a really distinctive shift from being an all male rabbinic school class to now, women rabbis as a norm. >> all of us dressed up in dark suits all males of course when i was ordained that has changed so much over the years as you know i have been a great supporter of women colleagues in the rabbinate it has come to the point now where things are much more informal at our school conventions i still remember one of the times one of our colleagues who is a

biblical scholar was nursing her baby in the back of the lecture hall. that is how far it has come that part is just wonderful. also a tremendous change in the view of let's say our lesbian and gay colleagues i remember the battles for that in the 1980s where there was an outreach and inclusive feeling for all those who were interested in being rabbis and it did not matter in essence, whether they were gay or lesbian or heterosexual, it just did not matter and that is a tremendous change and a wonderful one. >> you touch on in these shifts that really rabbis learn to become rabbis through educational means. i know that we have a picture we are going to show up of you when you were ordained with your mentors and i am wondering if that is a place where you can comment on what for you is

the nature of that kind of membership that really forms one rabbi to the next generation to generation. >> yeah, i was very lucky in rabbinical school i served as a student colleague by the time i was ordained i had an experience what would be involved in terms of responsibilities i have always been grateful for that and tried to be a mentor to young men and women who would come to me as a rabbi to help them along that journey what happened last friday night of many of my colleagues coming back and recounting their experiences was tremendously gratifying. one of the things i have learned though, is, it is so

important for the mentor, if you will, to really give a sense of freedom and creativity to the young rabbis that he or she is working with. and i think that was a really key lesson that i had learned from my mentor rabbi blackman in cincinnati and i tried to carry that on over the years and take pride in their success. one of the nicest complements i ever received was a con agree dependent who said to me let's say one of my younger colleagues gave a good sermon i was smiling, i was happy for them. >> so we have a picture here with you in the middle why don't you let us know what the framework is of this picture who these folks are. >> that was taken when i was installed as the president of the reform rabbis and my colleagues came to share that happiness with me so these are

both rabinic colleagues i had served with in my congregation so called assistant or associate rabbis and eight who came from our congregation including my son, to become rabbis themselves. >> beautiful. >> i truly take great pride in that. >> you know, every profession has its if i can say kind of zone of intimacy, that allows that particular profession to really let their hair down really understand what it is like for example really no body knows what it is like to be a doctor ultimately but other doctors in a way no body knows what it is like to be an attorney but other attorneys so really no body knows what it is like to be a member of the clergy, a rabbi, minister, a priest but other rabbis,

ministers and priests i am wondering, it just seems to me part of what you have done with all the folks you have worked with, you have allowed that deeper human growth that essentially cultivates the entire landscape and i am wondering what you feel are your sense of kind of enrichment and accomplishment as a mentor being able to do that. >> it has been a wonderful feeling and sort of captured last friday night, you know, being a rabbi is a rather interesting life experience i remember my first day in the rabbinate my wife said to me she has been incredibly wonderful and supportive overall these well, we have been married over 55 years but she has been tremendously supportive of me through the ups and downs of being a rabbi but she first said why would anyone come to you for advice you are 26 years old what do you really know?

what i discovered is having the title rabbi meant that people saw you in the course of a 2000 year tradition even though one is 26 and not a very experienced person the fact that you are part of that tradition people do have a sense of faith and understanding about you so i learned that over the years of course you have to justify that faith but it was a tremendous boost to carry the title rabbi even as a very young man. >> we will take a quick break and return in just a moment to mosaic

welcome back to mosaic i am rabbi weiz honored to be your host this morning we are in a

beautiful conversation with rabbi weaner his history as a rabbi over the past 50 years and how that has embodied life in san francisco. we were talking about historic events i am wondering from your perspective what was the experience here in san francisco with the vietnam war and some other events of that era. >> well, actually it is not just in san francisco but earlier i served a congregation in baltimore for 8 years and those were the years of the civil rights movement i can remember the experiences of marchs and trying to really bring a sense of equality and freedom to all americans. then there was the vietnam war experience i can remember in baltimore going to the major moratorium on the vietnam war where hundreds of thousands of people came to call for an end to the war. i can remember officiating at the funeral of some of our young men who died in the war.

so my rabbinate has focused a lot on social justice issues. here in san francisco, i would say one of the main things was a welcome for soviet jews, i am the grandson of immigrates from russia, starting in early 20th century, so for me, the idea that literally tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of jews were coming to this country, searching for freedom we presented a tremendous sense of welcome for them one of the high moments for me always was around september, high holy days when literally hundreds of jews who had almost just come off the plane from russia, came to hear about judaism and -- >> i think we have a picture actually you were in the sunday edition of the chronical in

december 19 when? >> early 1990s. >> 1989. >> okay and actually what is interesting this became that picture was on a national kit that all reformed synagogues received to sort of confirm or to continue that sense of welcome for our brothersisters from is soviet union. >> what was it like sort of those first few days literally witnessing a massive immigration really of jewish humanity landing in san francisco? half way across the world. >> well, what was incredible was the fact that the soviet government had obviously played down any involvement in jew day imp involvement in judaism.

i remember doing a service in the home a lady in the corner was fearful during the service i said why are you so upset she said well, in the soviet union, the kgb would break-in if we had a service like this and i told her the kgb wasn't going to break-in but it taught me an interesting lesson of the regime they came from and how important it was for them to be free i also must tell you the joy i felt over the years and still do when i officiate at weddings and baby namings from the many young people who came to us and were bar bat mitzvah and grew up in our synagogue some say there was not a future for them but they continued to be lovingly part of the jewish

community. >> we just have a little time before another break. on the flip side did it mean during the era people would come to you in a more personal way for counselling whether or not they should go to the draft, be a conscientious objector if they chose to go how would they be a jewish soldier you know, i am a business person and i want to the my part for civil rights and -- do my part for civil rights i want to hire this person, that person was that private rabbinic conversation as well? >> i always felt personal counselling was an important part of being a rabbi some of the most difficult experiences were counselling young people struggling with the draft and a young man who would say to me rabbi you know, if this were the second world war and we were fighting the nazis it wouldn't be a question but i am

not sure i can go and you know, fight against villagers in vietnam. there was an anguish and agony for so many young people in those days. >> fascinating we will come back to this conversation on mosaic in just a moment ,,

good morning welcome back. i am honored to be your host we are going to put a picture from the san francisco examiner back up on the screen from december 1989 with rabbi weiner and a soviet jewish family over a torah that was from the sunday edition of san francisco examiner 1989 welcome back marty. >> good to be back. >> so to current times, you are technically retired but still a rabbi active in the community doing lots of different things

what are some issues you find compelling for the attention of a rabbi. >> one main thing we have not mentioned is of course the struggle for peace in israel and the israeli palestinian struggle which goes on today and i am still very much involved in that and i think it is probably the focus of many of my colleagues these days and of course the general social issues that are there, i was a big supporter obviously of the new medical plan that president obama was able to get through and i think those are critical issues as a rabbi i cherish the freedom but what i found out is my life is very, very busy and i had dreamt of going down to my favorite place and having coffee and reading the new york

times i can't find the time my wife and i take courses from the farm institute at usf it is a seniors study program. >> you are also you know you were a president to the central conference it is an honor to be distinguished as a rabbi among rabbis san francisco is a very unique place how do you sort of see the rest of the country, in terms of what is similar and what is different. >> well, probably one of the main things involves the issue of freedom of the pulpit i think there are situations around the country where rabbis might be very fearful of saying certain things that would upset their congregations, i have always felt as i have spoken with you before, that it was important for a rabbi to bring out both sides whether it is in a social justice program or

sermon. speak out because people wanted to hear something again among the nice comments i heard over the years were people who said to me, you know rabbi after your sermon we talked about it at the lunch afterwards and debated it that was always important even if they didn't agree i loved the fact that it stimulated some conversation about a critical issue. >> hmm. >> and they didn't just forget what had been said so that -- >> i am wondering then just in the short period of time we have here were there some issues you thought would be easily acceptable and weren't or some you thought would be harder to accept and were much easier than you previously thought. >> all issues at the beginning are hard. i understand how some people were upset so i didn't feel blessed by a woman rabbi. now there are 4 or 500

outstanding women colleagues they have made a tremendous pen douse contribution and all those comments are away but issues of justice and peace in israel other social issues they are still controversial you have to work through with people the important thing was always to admit there is another side and not to be so passionate that you are blind to concerns of both sides. >> so fascinating. believe it or not we are coming to the end of our time together so really it is a comma in the conversation i want to thank you so much for reflecting on your 50 years in the rabbinate. thank you so much for being with us. we spent so much time asking our guests question our question for you today is what are some of the social justice

issues that you think beg for clergy involvement? let us know what you think at jewish tv fs@g mail.com.

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