Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler, who led Beth El Temple for 38 years, was a man of faith, a social justice activist, an ardent supporter of Israel and a promoter of interfaith dialogue.
“He is one of the few rabbis who became a leader of the general community,” Robert Fishman, the former director of community relations at the Hartford Jewish Federation, told The Courant some years ago, “one of the few the people turn to as a champion of civil rights for any people in distress.”
Kessler died May 30 from lymphoma and was suffering from dementia. He was 95.
In 1954, a small group of families in West Hartford established Beth El Temple in West Hartford and were looking for a strong leader. The new conservative congregation had no building of its own and was meeting at the Quaker Meeting House and Bugbee School, but it had plans to grow as many Jews followed the post-war exodus from the city to the suburbs. Kessler, who was 30 and had been ordained for only three years, accepted the position as Beth El’s first rabbi.
“They wanted a young, dynamic and activist rabbi,” said Rabbi James Rosen, who succeeded Kessler as the head rabbi in 1992. “He was absolutely central to making this place thrive. He thought rabbis ought to have a public sphere as well.”
After high school, Kessler had enrolled in Yeshiva University in New York, where he studied to be a rabbi, a goal he had chosen when he was 8 or 9. He left before graduation to enlist in the Air Force: He wanted to be a pilot, but he was rejected because of sinus problems. He persevered and became an aerial gunner and radio operator.
While Kessler was in training in Lincoln, Neb., he met his future wife, Maurine Evnen. Knowing no one outside the air base, he took his watch to a watchmaker’s shop and asked the owner if he knew any nice Jewish girls. No one answered the watchmaker’s first call, but Maurine picked up the phone on the second call, and they arranged to meet. They married in 1947 and had two children. Maurine Kessler earned a doctorate in audiology and taught at Southern Connecticut State University and the University of Tel Aviv. She died in 2011.
He flew 18 missions over Italy and Austria in a B-24, and his plane was hit multiple times and had to make an emergency landing. “The crew conspired to not tell HQ because they feared family back home would read or hear of it on the radio, not knowing whether they were dead or alive,” said Abigail Kessler-Hana, his daughter.
After the war, Kessler finished college and enrolled in the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York to prepare for ordination. In 1948, when Israel was declared a nation, he left his studies and headed for Israel, against his advisor’s wishes. “My place is in Israel,” Kessler declared. He served in congregations in Illinois and Nova Scotia before coming to West Hartford.
Under Kessler’s leadership, Beth El grew, becoming one of the largest synagogues in the area, with over 700 children in its religious school at one time. The original families raised $1 million and within a few years, built a school and vestry. A new sanctuary was dedicated in 1963. Although Kessler frowned on women wearing pants to services, he introduced the practice of allowing them to be counted in the quorum required for certain prayers.
When Peter Rosazza was assigned as a priest to a Roman Catholic parish in West Hartford in 1972, he heard about a local interfaith organization of Christians and Jews and was eager to join. “Rabbi Kessler was the driving force,” said Rosazza, who eventually became an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Hartford. “He was very social justice minded. It was almost like listening to the Prophet Amos. He was very, very good.”
Kessler taught a class on Judaism at Trinity College for many years, and also taught at the University of Hartford.
He became a leader in many Jewish organizations and was attending a rabbinical conference at a resort in the Catskills when Dr. Martin Luther King was in Birmingham and Selma in 1963. Kessler felt that it was essential to join King and protest segregation and rounded up other rabbis to leave the meeting and head for Alabama, where they marched with King. Kessler spoke from the pulpit of the 19th Street Baptist Church, linking the black experience with Jewish history. “We have to remember we were a slave people, and because of that have to be sensitive to slavery of any kind at any time and against any people,” he said in his homily.
On his return to Hartford, Kessler convened a meeting with clergy and slumlords from the North End of Hartford to demand better housing conditions. He joined the Community Renewal Team, an anti-poverty agency.
“He works in the suburbs but has a heart that is open and compassionate to the poor of the city,” said Rosazza, who was well-known in the Hartford area for his own work on behalf of inner-city residents.
In 1964, Kessler joined many hundreds of thousands of people for the March on Washington, where King gave his memorable speech.
Kessler didn’t hesitate to address political issues. He criticized the war in Vietnam, even though some congregants walked out in protest. He moderated a panel with a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which also drew criticism. He continued to speak out on contemporary issues: on Darfur, the treatment of Jews by Soviet Russia. Many in the congregation appreciated his involvement in topical issues. “That is very important to what a congregation should be,” said Rosen. For many years, he wrote articles for The Courant describing his experiences in Israel or visiting persecuted “Refuseniks” in Russia.
After retiring, Kessler was named rabbi emeritus and remained active. He conducted services and was a guest rabbi at numerous synagogues and spent six months as a visiting rabbi in a South African congregation in 1997. Kessler made trips almost yearly to Israel, where he studied and deepened his knowledge of Hebrew texts and history. When he was in his early 90s, he attended a summer rabbinical seminar in Jerusalem, taking the bus back and forth to the meetings. He regularly attended social justice rallies in Hartford; one picture taken only a few years ago shows him near Sen. Richard Blumenthal on the steps of the state Capitol.
Kessler was born Sept. 18, 1923, to Joseph and Dora Koplin Kessler in Bethlehem, Pa. His mother was a successful hatmaker, and his father did odd jobs. The family, which had four children, moved to Philadelphia and during the Depression, sold light bulbs and took in borders for additional income.
When Kessler was a student at Yeshiva University, his friends joked that he was too good looking to be studying for the rabbinate. “GQ handsome,” one of his congregation called him. “He was very serious, but not solemn,” said Ted Comet, a Yeshiva classmate. Kessler, who was formal in large settings, was warm and friendly in intimate groups, “and eager to engage in all sorts of issues,” said Rosen.
Kessler is survived by his daughter, Abigail Kessler-Hana; his son, Jonathan J. Kessler; a granddaughter, Georgine; and his brother, Arnold.
The Courant praised him in an editorial when he retired from Beth El Temple “as a leader [who] taught and applied the Judaic traditions that foster equality and justice for all. He was an activist in behalf of civil rights when to be such required a pioneering spirit. [He] realized that for humankind to experience mutual tolerance would require knowledge and understanding. That led him to advocate ecumenism long before it gained popularity.”
