Rabbi David Ellenson

A Tribute to a Beautiful Man, Friend and Teacher

photo courtesy of HUC

I was so deeply saddened this morning to learn that Rabbi David Ellenson had died today. His over-burdened heart carried so much love for his family and the Jewish people and thousands will mourn the loss of his essence, his love, his humor, and his generosity of spirit.

David’s scholarship focused on Orthodoxy and its relationship to Modernity. He was an original thinker, prolific scholar, and powerful teacher. He served as president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion for 12 years and was universally known for his mind, his deep soul and his uncommon, abiding kindness.

When I was installed as Senior Rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, David blessed my rabbinate and shared a message with our community that was a perfect blend of his intellectual rigor, his fealty to the Jewish tradition, and his joyful prodding forward for the ongoing creation of an open, vigorous modern Jewish life. We spoke once each year and I relished even five minutes of his advice and insight.

When my mother died of cancer in 2012 David showed up in my living room where I was sitting shiva. It was during a lull in the visits. I was alone with a couple congregants expressing their condolences, exhausted and in need of a nap. In walked David, saw me flagging, and took me in his arms with the quintessential hug of a papa bear. I felt so deeply loved by my rabbi at that moment and it brings tears to my eyes as I tap out these words right now. Just at that moment, my favorite mohel then walked in; and David, the mohel and I immediately began conversing in Hebrew. Knowing that he was talking to the president of a rabbinical school and a great scholar, the mohel offered words of Torah.

“When your mother and father die, you can always learn from Moses our Teacher. כשאמא ואבא מתים יש עדין משה רבינו״”

I burst into tears as I grasped his meaning and the proposition of Jewish faith that even when we lose our loved ones, we keep them alive whenever we learn. And so in remembering that moment this morning when I heard the news about David, I reached for my prayerbook and recited the following blessing.

ברוך אתה יי אלוהינו מלך העולם שנתן מחמתו ליראיו

Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has imparted Divine wisdom to those who revere God.

This was David’s humility as a teacher; and so he will remain, bound up in the bonds of Eternal Life, the very essence of a human being, a Jew, and a mensch, sharing God’s wisdom with us all.

I am sending my love to his wife Rabbi Jacqueline Koch Ellenson and his children Ruth Andrew Ellenson, Rabbi Micah Ellenson, Nomi Ellenson May, Rafi Ellenson, a Hebrew College rabbinical student, and Hannah Miriam Ellenson, a rabbinical student at HUC; and four grandchildren.

May David’s memory be an enduring blessing.