Aviva Weinstein:
So my name is Aviva Weinstein and I am a current sophomore here at Brandeis, and I'm also Hillel social and cultural events coordinator. We're so excited today to be hosting Rabbi Albert Axelrad and Professor Stephen Whitfield.
Aviva Weinstein:
Rabbi Al mentored and inspired thousands of students during his 34 years as Jewish chaplain and executive director of Brandeis Hillel from 1964 to 1999. He was known for his political activism surrounding the war in Vietnam and Civil Rights. Under his leadership, Brandeis became a center of activity in the Soviet Jewry Movement. Rabbi Axelrad's writing can conveniently be found in his book, Meditations of a Maverick Rabbi, published in 1985. Prof. Whitfield is the proud editor of that volume.
Aviva Weinstein:
Steve Whitfield is the Max Richter Professor of American Civilization, Emeritus, at Brandeis. He earned his PhD here in 1972 and is the author of eight books, including, Learning on the Left, Political Profiles of Brandeis University. He's been a visiting professor at Hebrew University, the Sorbonne and the University of Munich as well.
Aviva Weinstein:
So the way that we'll be doing this is that Rabbi Al and Professor Whitfield will be speaking for about 45 minutes. And then at around 1:45, we're going to take questions for the last 15 minutes. So there's going to be an opportunity at the end to ask some questions, but feel free throughout to ask questions in the chat. That's how we're mainly going to be doing this. And then I'll pick some of the questions at the end to ask. Also I said this at the beginning, but please try to stay muted during the conversation. That'll be helpful for being able to hear everyone. So without further ado, Rabbi Al and Professor Whitfield.
Stephen Whitfield:
Thank you, Aviva, and Al it's a pleasure to see you, a pleasure to be with you. I trust that you share the thrill of what can be done through the miracle of Zoom, where you can see and listen to and they can see you. For this moment about 300 people have registered for this event and it's really quite extraordinary. And the purpose is really to allow you to reminisce, to talk about the past, to explain to people what you have done, who you are. And we will, I think deepen our own appreciation of why we have cherished you really for so long in so many ways.
Stephen Whitfield:
I'd like to start by conveying an incident that some people may not have known about, that is one indication as to why you are so special, because I believe you may be the only rabbi whose character, whose integrity has been certified by a national airline. And that is, you were going on a speaking tour of Australia. You left Logan Airport, you were on your way to Los Angeles before going on to Sydney, when you realized and Berta realized that you had left your passport behind.
Stephen Whitfield:
You got to Los Angeles, Qantas was reluctant to let you board, in the hope that the passport would arrive. It did not arrive in time. The representative at Los Angeles, therefore had to send a telegram to allow you to land in Sydney without a passport. And I'm going to quote the exact sentence from the Qantas representative in Los Angeles to Qantas Airlines in Sydney. The line was, and I quote, the bloke is kosher, end of quote. That-
Al Axelrad:
Right on the head.
Stephen Whitfield:
That is Al. Al it's a delight really, to be able to ask you some questions about your life in the past. The program is entitled of course, From Brooklyn to Brandeis and After. So what I'd like to do is start by asking you, what is it that you brought with you through your life from Brooklyn? What was it that shaped you? What were the values, the ideals, the experiences, your family background that shaped your life?
Al Axelrad:
Well, Stephen. Number one, the prime, not acquisition but the prime part of my life that I brought with me from Brooklyn to Brandeis was my wife Berta. We have now been married for 59 years. That's a lot of mileage. And we have four amazing children whom you also know, and they love you. One of them, our only son used to make up words with you. You and David had your own vocabulary that you could speak publicly and to others, and they would have not a similarity, not a bit of knowledge or understanding as to what you were saying, because all of your words were concocted ex nihilo, but you and David went to anywhere in the world with your own vocabulary. And David-
Stephen Whitfield:
Al, I want you to get to your Brooklyn accent or your Brooklyn background. What is there about Brooklyn that you took with you?
Al Axelrad:
Well, the accent would probably be the first and I'm very proud of being a Brooklyn boy, from the Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach area. And when I met Berta, we were both Columbia University students. I was a junior at Columbia College and Berta went across the street, because she was a Boston girl, but she became a fresh person at Barnard College a school for women only to this day, but we met on Berta's first day. She was getting out of her parents' automobile and there she was on the sidewalk of Broadway on 116th Street, about to enter Barnard College.
Al Axelrad:
And I was running orientation for new students at that year. And so I tried to become friends with all of them and offer help to all of them who were getting out of their parents' cars and help with their luggage and get them settled in their dormitory rooms at Barnard, although, technically men were not allowed to enter women's rooms at Barnard college, but since I was representing orientation, I drew a permit. So I helped her to settle into her room. I think it was at Brooks Hall, and Brooks was her last name then, or maybe it was you at hall, and we-
Stephen Whitfield:
Al I hate to interrupt you, you're going ahead of the story. I'd love for you to talk about your family, that is your parents. And then I'd love for you to talk about the remarkable Jewish institution that also shaped you, which was Yeshivah of Flatbush. So don't jump too far ahead, we have time. What about your parents?
Al Axelrad:
Okay. Well, my mom and dad had only one child, and that was Albert Axelrad. And it was a very upsetting part of my life because I didn't want to be an only child. I wanted to have siblings and company. And so I used to plead with my parents to have more children, and they tolerated that for a spell, but then they emphasized that biologically that was not possible and that I had to adjust to that and live with it. And maybe one day I'll fall in love with a life partner who will be receptive to the idea of having multiple children.
Al Axelrad:
And so that's what I did. I stopped bugging my parents to have more kids, and I got accustomed to the idea of being a one and only, but it never sat well with me, and I was never content with that. I always wanted siblings. So I started bugging my parents again to... At this time I started bugging them to adopt children and that would suit me fine. And they tolerated that for a short spell and then said, "No, Albert, we can't afford to adopt children. And again, you'll have to adjust to being an only child and try to fall in love with a partner who will be open to having a large family."
Al Axelrad:
So Berta and I talked about it and I just loved her so much from the get-go. She became the love of my life and is still to this day, the love of my life.
Stephen Whitfield:
Al, I want to get from your flat to Flatbush.
Al Axelrad:
Awesome.
Stephen Whitfield:
Tell us about Yeshivah of Flatbush.
Al Axelrad:
They are good, Stephen. My parents were not Orthodox Jews. My father was a far leftist person socially and politically, and he joined organizations that were in tune with that leftist posture. And I sympathized with that from the earliest of times and I've become a lefty rabbi and I'm proud of that. But they wanted me to go to a school that would also give me a strong Jewish background, though they were not really practicing Jewish life. From a traditional perspective, they wanted me to know a lot about Jewish culture, Jewish religious life, and the Jewish faith. And so they found this amazing yeshiva, a Jewish parochial school in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. The old building that I was in as a new student was located on East 10th Street at the corner of Avenue I.
Al Axelrad:
And I loved that yeshiva from the get-go. I made good friends, wonderful friends, boys and girls. Flatbush was a coed yeshiva from day one. And I became an athlete at Yeshivah Flatbush. I was on the starting basketball team when I was very young and I loved playing basketball. And my friends were also on the basketball team. There was a set of identical twins, Harvey and Jerry Claristenfeld, may they rest in peace.
Al Axelrad:
And they were among my closest friends and they were both on the basketball team and they were both good students. I was a better student, but we became very good buddies, the Cleverest and Feld identical twins, and you couldn't tear them apart. In the early days, I couldn't tell Harvey from Jerry or Jerry from Harvey, and they were not very Orthodox, neither were their parents, but they went to a yeshiva in Boro Park called Etz Hayim, that means tree of life. And it was a good yeshiva, but only in elementary school. And-
Stephen Whitfield:
And was Yeshivah of Flatbush, 12 years or how many years did you attend?
Al Axelrad:
I think it was actually 13 years.
Stephen Whitfield:
13.
Al Axelrad:
One or the other. I started really in kindergarten and then first grade, through high school. The high school was brand new in my day. So I went through elementary school, through eighth grade and then came the high school. So I was in the third graduating class of the Yeshivah of Flatbush High School, and ultimately the high school moved to a new building at the corner of Avenue J and East 15th Street. And it was a wonderful school, both the elementary school and the high school were absolutely superb academically. And I loved my years there.
Al Axelrad:
I loved the kids, my classmates. I loved the faculty, even one particularly Orthodox rabbi who used to slap me on the tippy top of my head when he saw me outdoors without a kippah, that is without a yamaka. He would slap me hard right on the top of my head. And he would say to me, "Avraham." My Hebrew name, "[Hebrew], you're going to catch a cold in the head." He was trying to protect me from catching a cold in my Keppe, as you would say.
Stephen Whitfield:
And Al, you're revealing that the instruction, if I understand it correctly, the instruction was all in Hebrew?
Al Axelrad:
Yes, Hebrew was the language of instruction. Most yeshivot taught not in Hebrew, but I think in Yiddish, because Hebrew was the holy language, the language in which the Bible originated. So it was not a language intended for secular purposes. So most yeshivot taught in Hebrew at Flatbush was... So mostly she taught in Yiddish, not Hebrew, but Flatbush taught in Hebrew. And so my Hebrew became as fluent with me as my English, and I loved the Hebrew language and love it to this day. And I love reading in Hebrew, whether newspapers or classics. I love speaking in Hebrew with Israelis, but also with non-Israelis.
Stephen Whitfield:
So you never had any regret of course, of not having a public school education, given the benefits that you derive from that yeshiva?
Al Axelrad:
No, I never regretted it. I always had a love affair with Hebrew and with Yeshivah at Flatbush. And I remember, well, all of my teachers, both in secular studies and in Hebrew and including the rabbis among them and the very Orthodox among them, like the rabbi who used to slap me on the top of my kippy.
Stephen Whitfield:
This seems to have been a very traumatic experience, Al.
Al Axelrad:
But it wasn't, I mean, I had-
Stephen Whitfield:
Did you develop your occasional goal? Did you decide to become a rabbi when you were a teenager or when did that happen?
Al Axelrad:
It was very early in my life, but I can't pinpoint the precise timing of it, Stephen. My father was not a synagogue-goer, so he and I became a synagogue-goer very early on Shabbat morning. I would walk from our home in Manhattan Beach next to Sheepshead Bay into Brighton Beach. And there, I would catch a bus and our trolley, what we called trolleys in those days. Here in Boston, we call them street cars, but I would catch the Coney Island Avenue trolley in Brighton Beach and take it all the way to Flatbush to the yeshiva.
Stephen Whitfield:
I want to ask you because of the far leftism of your father, which you've told me about, did he object when you wanted to become a rabbi?
Al Axelrad:
That was very interesting. He never objected nor did he approve. My mother was very proud of me from the get-go about becoming a rabbi, but she did not come from a religious background. She came from a very secular background. She was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Brooklyn. My father born in Russia.
Al Axelrad:
Both my parents wanted me to get a good Jewish and Hebrew background. So they took me to the Yeshivah of Flatbush, where we had an appointment with the founder and the principal, whose name, may he rest in peace, was Joel Braverman, Mr. Braverman, we called him. And he was a rough, tough guy, he was a fluent Hebrewist. I don't think that he was a real scholar, like others, but his Hebrew was fluent and he loved us kids, except he was also a disciplinarian and boy was he tough.
Al Axelrad:
And he expressed his love for us by pinching our cheeks very hard. So my cheeks on both sides could be redden for a day or two from Mr. Braverman's pinches, but his pinches, he made it clear emphatically that they were pinches of love on both sides, but when he was angry at us for something, like I'll tell you one story, Stephen, that-
Stephen Whitfield:
And then we have to move on to how you became a rabbi.
Al Axelrad:
Oh, fair enough. So we had a basketball game in Manhattan at Ramaz, our arch rival yeshiva, and I don't remember who won the game. They were very good and we were pretty good, but it was close, it was very, very close. But the game ended late and we had to get home and we had homework to do. So we went home on the Coney Island Avenue trolley and got home. And then we were close to Shabbat, the Sabbath, and we had a teacher who was our very favorite teacher. He was our French teacher. So he did not teach Jewish studies. He didn't know any Hebrew. I think he knew Yiddish, but no Hebrew. And his name was Oscar Rosenthal, and we adored him.
Al Axelrad:
So we had him every day for French until he had a heart attack. And then we could only visit him in the hospital for a while and at his home, he lived in The Bronx. And so we had a game on a Saturday evening at Ramaz, and we got there just as Shabbat was ending. So we got there, it was already darkening out and we got to Ramaz and they were coming out of synagogue, the Jews, especially the elderly, the parents of the students.
Al Axelrad:
And so when they looked at their watches, well, they didn't all wear watches, but when they became aware of the time, it was clear to them that in order to get there that early, and we had to have traveled on Shabbat. We had to have somehow managed to get to Ramaz while Shabbat was still going on. And they reported that to Mr. Braverman and he came storming and I mean storming into our classroom that Monday morning. And he said, "I want..." His English was accented, "I want to see the basketball players, I want the twins. I want Howard Ryan, and I want the big guy Albert Axelrad." Who he always called Avraham, my Hebrew name.
Al Axelrad:
So he wanted us in the hallway, out of the class, and he started pinching our cheeks, at this time so hard that it was clearly not a pinch of affection, it was a pinch of anger, "How dare you travel on Shabbat and let it be seen by the Ramaz parents that you've traveled on Shabbat." And we told him that that was an oversight on our pile, we think it was a mistake in retrospect, and we apologized to him and to the yeshiva for embarrassing the yeshiva bufumbi in public. And he embraced us in the end and just said, "Don't you ever let that happen again." His English was heavily accented. And we adored him too, but we were also scared of him.
Stephen Whitfield:
Yeah, very good.
Al Axelrad:
We did make him a promise, and we did keep that promise except for one day-
Stephen Whitfield:
Okay. Al, I'm sorry. I've got to jump ahead because of time. Here's now a-
Al Axelrad:
You are missing a good anecdote.
Stephen Whitfield:
Al, when you decided to become a rabbi, I believe you had told me more than once that you never wanted to have a pulpit. You never wanted to be a congregational rabbi, always wanted to do Hillel.
Al Axelrad:
Yeah.
Stephen Whitfield:
You always wanted to do the chaplaincy on a campus. How is it that you made that decision? Why did you decide to eschew the congregational route and go towards the campus route?
Al Axelrad:
Well, growing up in Manhattan Beach, which is adjacent to Brighton Beach and to Sheepshead Bay and then two communities away from Coney Island, and we were actually part of that Island, Coney Island. So my father emphasized throughout my boyhood that his political and social leftism, and it was clear that he wanted me to inherit that leftist stance, which I did indeed inherit, I'm proudly so. But there was this incident that I was telling you about, about the night game on a Saturday night at Ramaz and how we had to travel on Shabbat to get there in time for our warmup and then for the game.
Al Axelrad:
But I was always very proud of this leftist element that my father embraced. Mother didn't, mother was apolitical, is what I would say, proud of being a Brooklyn girl and a family woman, but not political. I think she used to vote on election day, but my father used to not only vote, but also campaign for certain candidates and especially for one political party that was called in those days, the American Labor Party. And they had a candidate for president. I think his name was Taylor, and I remember him very well too.
Al Axelrad:
But I was always proud of this leftist component that was a mega part of my father's identity. And he used to go to Peekskill, New York to a barracks to workout there with other leftist and communist soldiers. And a couple of times he took me with him and, I had a very interesting day and a wonderful time being with my dad in Peekskill, New York at a base with his lefty buddies. And-
Stephen Whitfield:
And so it was your father's politics that made you suspicious of what it would be like to serve a congregation?
Al Axelrad:
That was a mega part of it because he knew that I wanted to be a rabbi. And he never did anything to discourage me, but he was clearly not as proud of it as my mother was. She made it very clear how proud it was that her boychild was going to become a rabbi, and they both knew from the get-go that I've wanted to be a university rabbi, a Hillel rabbi and not a pulpit rabbi. And the fact was that growing up in Manhattan Beach, there was no synagogue in Manhattan Beach, but there were synagogues in Sheepshead Bay on one side of Manhattan Beach and more so in Brighton Beach on the other side of Manhattan Beach.
Al Axelrad:
And there was one synagogue in particular that was an Orthodox shul. It had a Hebrew name too, but it escapes me, because they rarely used it. They referred to themselves always as the Manhattan Beach Jewish Center. And that's where I became a bar mitzvah. And the rabbi was a man by the name of Morris Max, alav hashalom. So his last name was Max, which was my father's first name. In Hebrew, my father was Meira, and one who gives off light, Meira, but his English name was Max and he was always very proud of it. And I always liked that name, but I loved his Hebrew name too, which was Meira meaning one who gives off light. Is a beautiful name.
Stephen Whitfield:
Yes.
Al Axelrad:
So there was a rabbi in our synagogue, but my father never went to shul there. But I did, and I would walk from our home in Manhattan Beach on Langham Street. The streets in Manhattan Beach were all alphabetized. So the first one started with an A, Amherst and Beaumont and Coleridge, et cetera. And we were in the poorer area, the more modest area where the houses were much smaller and much closer to one another.
Stephen Whitfield:
And Al, I'm looking at the time here. I hate to do this to you. We have to get to Brandeis.
Al Axelrad:
Well, I have to tell you about that first.
Stephen Whitfield:
Al, how did you get to Brandeis in 1965?
Al Axelrad:
Brandeis was my dream job, the job of my fantasies. I knew that I didn't want a pulpit and the reason I didn't want a pulpit, and my father supported that, and so did my mother, was that in their view, especially my father's, pulpit rabbis were much more conservative than university rabbis or hospital rabbis. So my father thought, and I think rightly so, that pulpit rabbis were somewhat afraid for their jobs and they were afraid to be identified as leftist.
Al Axelrad:
So there was a rabbi of the Manhattan Beach Jewish Center named, Morris Max. And I adored him and everybody loved him except for the right wing people, because Rabbi Max, would speak from the heart and from the head. And he believed everything he said, and he didn't steer away from saying the most controversial things. He would redden in the face, and pound the pulpit, and say his piece, what he was really thinking and believing. And my father loved him. And my father stood by him, but since my father hardly ever went to shul, he was never with Rabbi Max, close person to person, except that he loved Rabbi Max and he respected Rabbi Max and so do I.
Stephen Whitfield:
Al, what appealed to you in the campus rabbinate as a Hillel chaplain was really the sense of autonomy, is that?
Al Axelrad:
That's exactly right-
Stephen Whitfield:
And did Brandeis allow you in the years you served from 1965 to 1999, did Brandeis give you that autonomy that you craved? Is that-
Al Axelrad:
From the get-go until we parted company. I always enjoyed that at Brandeis, including from the first president who was the president who hired me. And that was Ab Sachar. And I always called Dr. Sachar at first, until he finally said to me as did the other great scholars whom I was calling Dr. Glatzer, Dr. Altmann, and who would finally say to me, "Albert..." They had German accents, "Albert, it is time you called me Nahum." Oh, that was Glatzer. Dr. Altmann never told me to call him Alexander, because I don't think anybody could. I'm not even sure what his wife, Judith called him. But towards kids, he was always Dr. Altmann or Prof. Altmann, and we adored him and respected him and loved him, but we could never bring ourselves to call him anything, but doctor or professor.
Stephen Whitfield:
So the Brandeis job was a dream job, Al, because there were distinguished Judaic scholars on the faculty-
Al Axelrad:
And they were my idols.
Stephen Whitfield:
Sure.
Al Axelrad:
They were really as close as possible to being my idols. I mean, Glatzer and Altmann were two of the great greatest Jewish scholars the world over and in Germany where they started. And then I think they both moved to England for a while. I know Dr. Glatzer did. I think Dr. Altmann did too, and we just adored them. I mean, we had Dr. Altmann. Arthur Green and I were in the same class with Dr. Altmann.
Al Axelrad:
It was a class in Hasidism and it was such a sensational class that we all wanted it to continue. Dr. Altmann had agreed to teach it for only one semester and we wanted it to go on for a second semester. And the class, they were all chicken to talk with Dr. Altmann directly about continuing the course into a second semester. So they elected me unanimously to be their voice and make an appointment to see Dr. Altman.
Al Axelrad:
Even Arthur Green, didn't want to go with me to talk with Dr. Altmann, and Dr. Altmann was also his advisor for his thesis, but so I was elected and I couldn't score him out of it. And I remember being very nervous about meeting with Dr. Altmann and trying to convince him, or to con him as we would have said, into staying with us a second semester and I did it.
Al Axelrad:
And he couldn't have been sweeter and nicer. He was an amazingly good natured kind-hearted soul. And we couldn't not love him. And the same with Nahum Glatzer, you couldn't not love him. I can think of many others that you couldn't not love, but Altmann and Glatzer, they were two of a kind, great scholars, the greatest of scholars, European-trained, and fluent in languages. And they loved us and we just adored them.
Al Axelrad:
So I made the appointment to talk with Dr. Glatzer in his study, in the building that was then called Golding. It was at the center for Jewish studies and, he couldn't have been nicer to me or kinder, and I'll never forget his words, never. They made such a dent and they entered my heart so thoroughly and deeply, he heard me out. I mean, he was the epitome of a gentleman, a real gentleman.
Al Axelrad:
He wouldn't interrupt you. He wouldn't talk meanly to you. He wouldn't embarrass you in front of others. There were other Brandeis professors, including one in Jewish studies who will remain nameless, who would embarrass students and humiliate them in front of the other students in a class, and a couple of times they were crying. They were made to cry by these professors who attack them for either a stupid question or not having done the reading for the next day and asking a stupid question, but Dr. Altmann was so kind to me, and he heard me out, and I gave him my whole spiel about how much the class unanimously wanted him to stay one more semester with us, that we loved the course and we loved his way of teaching.
Al Axelrad:
When he had to go, he said to me, "Albert, I want you to know that I love this class, and I love you students, but the truth of the matter is that the material that I was teaching..." He was teaching the origin of Hasidism. And so he was teaching about all the great rabbis and how it was that Lubavitch got it start. But he didn't seem to be a lover of Lubavitch, but he was a real fan of some of the other great rabbis who started the Hasidic Movement, like with a lot of rabbis that he really admired and spoke very fondly, warmly and respectfully, but he said he became so attached to them, to these rabbis that he admired so much, that ending the class and him leaving us was hurtful to him.
Al Axelrad:
He knew he would miss us and he would miss teaching this material, even though he was not accosted himself. Really, Dr. Glatzer was more leaning toward Hasidism than Dr. Altmann. Dr. Altmann was the epitome of the great scholar straight-laced and he dressed impeccably, also did Dr. Glatzer
Stephen Whitfield:
Glatzer as well, yes.
Al Axelrad:
Both of them. They were both the epitome of gentlemen.
Stephen Whitfield:
And Al, I'm sorry. I'm getting a stage hook here by Aviva, who really wants to give some of your former students, some of the wonderful people at Brandeis who you counseled.
Al Axelrad:
I see David Muller's name on the screen. And he just recently, within the last couple of weeks, sent me the three books he's written and he dedicated them to me. And in the first book, and I'll show them to you before you leave. Well, you're not going to be here, but, I'll bring them to the screen to show you, it was a book in memory of his late father to whom he was very attached, but he dedicated the book to me. And there was one chapter, chapter seven, where he wrote about his hero who is on the faculty of Brandeis as a whole, and I was the first one.
Aviva Weinstein:
So we have a lot of questions. I'm going to try to get to a few, sorry also, if I pronounce anyone's name incorrectly. Our first one is from Ron Kronish-
Al Axelrad:
Kronish.
Aviva Weinstein:
Kronish, who says, "I was your Hillel president, and so is my Dahlia. What was it like to work with student leaders in Hillel?"
Al Axelrad:
Oh, I was so blessed. That's the truth. I had the greatest kids imaginable, and I can't really think of exceptions, but my Hillel presidents were superb. The first one that I had was a kid named Jonathan Molina 00:41:58. Stephen, you may remember him. Jonathan Molina, he was the son of a rabbi who was an outstanding rabbi, happened to be reformed, but was a real scholar too. And was in-
Ron Kronish:
Danbury, Connecticut.
Al Axelrad:
What town?
Ron Kronish:
Danbury, Connecticut.
Al Axelrad:
That's right. Whoever said Danbury got it right on the schnozola. Yeah, and like Rabbi Kronish, Ron's father was a great rabbi in Danbury Connecticut, and he was such a great rabbi that those of us who were in rabbinical school at the time, we would take off early on a Friday and head up to Danbury where we could hear, Rabbi Kronish. His sermons were just dynamite and showed such learning.
Aviva Weinstein:
Rabbi Jonathan Molina, his name was Albert.
Al Axelrad:
Jonathan Molina, he was my first Hillel president, that's right. And his vice-president was Bobby Sunshine, who became an officer of the presidents of the United States, in working on the budget. He was a budget officer. And Judy Lasker was another student leader in Hillel. She was outstanding. She was just a great kid and a great student, and I was very, very positive about her and her leadership and we became very friendly. And so too with all of her friends. Yeah, they were-
Aviva Weinstein:
All righty.
Al Axelrad:
... a bunch of kids, unbelievable kids. David Soloff, Oh, I can't get over how fabulous they were. And Ronnie Kronish was fabulous, and his sister, she was a dynamite kid. She had a physical ailment that limited her height severely, but it didn't eliminate her character or her thoughts. And she was a dynamite kid and I became very close to her, and feel close with her to this day, but we rarely if ever see one another. So she was very, very short. She came up a little higher than my knees but in terms of character and learning she was as dynamite as they come and I loved her and respected her enormously and-
Stephen Whitfield:
We have to get to other questions.
Al Axelrad:
Okay. Kept in touch with her for a very long-
Stephen Whitfield:
Sorry Al, I keep coming to do the X with you. I apologize, but we've got timing problems.
Al Axelrad:
And I still hear from Ron Kronish. Okay, Stephen, let's go ahead.
Stephen Whitfield:
Aviva.
Aviva Weinstein:
So we have a few questions asking you to talk about your experience with the civil rights activism that you did, and also a little bit about anything you did with the Soviet Jewry. If you could talk sort of, I know those are two separate things, but sort of about any of that activism-
Al Axelrad:
But they were my two nearest and dearest causes. They were the two causes that I felt mostly devoted to. And not in any particular order. I was drawn to both causes, Soviet jury and civil rights. I guess, civil right, I became involved in earlier because it was... Of all the causes available to us, that was one of the earliest and one of the most important. And I remember early in my Brandeis days is when Reverend King was killed. I think it was in Memphis, Stephen would know at the top of a yamaka.
Stephen Whitfield:
Yes.
Al Axelrad:
It was Memphis. Yeah. And I remember that I was so moved by that man and by what he stood for and for the guts of that man, and so upset with the murderer who killed him in Memphis. That the very next day after the killing I was moved to go to Memphis with a bunch of other clergy. There were about a dozen of us, maybe a dozen, maybe 10. To my regret and embarrassment, I was the only rabbi among them. So the others were all Catholic priests and Protestant ministers, and this one tall, bold rabbi. And I was very proud of being with them and going with them to Memphis.
Al Axelrad:
And there we met Coretta, almost from when we stepped off the plane. And we met Reverend Abernathy, also as we stepped off the plane, and others of Reverend King's disciples and students and friends and colleagues. And one of them taught my wife and me, what they taught me that day, a Negro spiritual song that has stayed with all through the years and that Berta learned with me after I got back. And Berta and I sing it together on different occasions. So it's a beautiful Negro spiritual, Black spiritual for which there is a harmony, and I love doing it with Berta. We've done it at different parties, different events. Would you like to hear a tiny bit of it? You can't, you don't have time. Okay. That's too bad Berta.
Stephen Whitfield:
Al, you're going to talk about Soviet Jewry. Part of the-
Al Axelrad:
One great cause was the civil rights cause. And that became very, very important to me. I knew quite a few Black people from Brooklyn, from my Brooklyn days. And well, anyway, I better move along because Stephen doesn't look like a muscular guy who would kick the you-know-what out of someone, but I fear him. I would not want to fight him with my face-
Stephen Whitfield:
But what about the Soviet Jewry-
Al Axelrad:
The Soviet Jewry.
Stephen Whitfield:
How did you get involved in Soviet Jewry?
Al Axelrad:
Yeah, that was the other. The two causes that motivated me during my early days as a rabbi were, civil rights and Soviet Jewry. I got to know... Oh God, Steve, that couple, the husband and wife, and I think they both did time in jail. What was their name?
Betsy Pfau:
Bonner and Sharansky
Al Axelrad:
That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Avital. Yeah. And I think I knew Avital a little better, and I knew him, and she was, I think more liberal than he. In Israel, he became involved with some right-wing parties, people and causes, I think more than Avital did. And those were causes that I did not identify with. I had a lot of Israeli friends and was involved in Israeli causes and I'm proud of them, but I never felt close to the Israeli right or the hawkish parties in Israel.
Al Axelrad:
Yeah, I just was never drawn to them, but I remember one day I was sitting in my study at Brandeis, and my study as Stephen remembers was very small, very tiny and very cluttered, extremely cluttered. And one day I was sitting in there with three or four kids. And so they were sitting on the floor, which was not uncommon. And I was sitting in my chair at the window, which had a beautiful view of Downtown Boston.
Al Axelrad:
What I was heading toward was that, I got a phone call in the middle of the conversation with the students. So they were on the floor, I was on my desk chair and Ellie, my secretary and staff assistant of a zillion years. I think she was with me for about 35 to 40 years. And she became like a member of my family and the students adored her, and so did I and Berta, my wife loved her.
Al Axelrad:
Ellie Efyenko and a class act, a devout Catholic, but also a lover of Judaism. And at one point she said to me she's never had a Hebrew name. How do I feel about recommending one to her? And so the next day I came in and I recommended that Ellie consider the name Elana, because it sounds like Ellen. And it's a beautiful name and it has a beautiful meaning. I told her, as I understand the name Ilana, it comes from the word Ilan, which is a boy's name, but which also means a tree.
Al Axelrad:
It's not an ordinary word for a tree, the ordinary word is, etz, as in Borei Pri Ha'etz:, but the literary term for a tree is Ilan and it's a beautiful word and a beautiful name and she loved it immediately. So she took the name Elana, not instead of Ellie or Ellen, but in addition. And so it was a very nice thing for Ellie and for me and the kids, who were Hebrewists also liked it very much. So a few of them would call her, Ilana, from time to time, but it was a great name for Ellie Efyenko. And she had a warm spot for Jews and Judaism and Jewish causes. Yeah, she really did.
Aviva Weinstein:
All righty. Well, that was very great. We unfortunately have a ton more questions, but the time is up, but we will have the recording available next week and they'll also include all of that in them. I know some people asked about that. We just want to say thank you to everyone for joining us today and also just mention an upcoming event that we have, it's called, a celebration of 73 years of Jewish life at Brandeis. It's going to be happening next Sunday, March 7th, and you can find the info to register in the chat. I think Celine put in the chat. So thank you everyone, and this was really awesome. Sorry, we didn't get to everyone's questions, but you're welcome to follow up afterwards as well.