Mindy Portnoy
|
||
Rabbi Dick Israel was my first Hillel director at Yale in 1969. It was a
tumultuous year, highlighted primarily by the Black Panthers' trial in New
Haven that spring. It was also the first year women had been admitted to
Yale.
I always found him to be a gentle, witty, and generous human being. He made
it possible for me to want to be involved in Hillel, while I was also being
very politically active. I am forever grateful to him for allowing me to
deliver a D'var Torah one Friday night, in which among other things I
compared Bobby Seale to Moses. He did not ask to see it beforehand.
I would have the privilege of continuing to know him later when I myself
became a Hillel director, and I would see him at our wonderful conferences at
Grossinger's. And of course, I loved his "kosher pig" book, his beautiful
letters to his daughter, and his Tashlich recommendations. He was a very
special human being.
Zecher tzaddik livracha.
Mindy Portnoy