By Rabbi Stanley T. Schickler, RJE
I'm honored and flattered to be here for this wonderful celebration of our history. It was actually my good fortune to be involved in just a bit of that history. Towards that end, I am thrilled for the opportunity to share some recollections.
We are extremely fortunate that one of the giants of our profession, Alan D. Bennett, of blessed memory, wrote a history of NATE’s first 50 years, entitled The Vision the Will, published in 2004 during our 50th birthday year. I am happy to share a quote from that volume:
“From the earliest days of Jewish communal life on these shores, Jewish educators have been impelled to find new and innovative educational responses to four challenges: (a) low standards in Jewish education, (b) a prioritization of secular education (c) the experience is mainly intermittent and disjointed and (d) There are not enough qualified educators to meet its needs. The establishment of NATE may be understood as an important and innovative mid-20th-century effort to confront these challenges.”
To continue where Alan left off, it was in 1954 that a small group of Jewish educators from the East Coast met in the boardroom of the UAHC headquarters at 838 Fifth Avenue. The emerging goal was to try to create a forum in which issues of Reform Jewish education could be discussed. As Alan wrote:
“... impelled by a sense of isolation and urgency, especially as more synagogue schools were built, enrollments began to burgeon, and teachers became harder to find. Events proceeded apace, and about a year later, NATE’s founding conference was convened on December 26-29, 1955, fifty (now 70) years and one month ago, at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City. 102 founders of NATE attended.”
And as Alan wrote in an even earlier document (sort of a baraita) about the founding of NATE, entitled Our Founders:
“The National Association of Temple Educators first drew breath on December 26, 1955, with the election of its first officers and executive board members. They convened for the first time on March 30, 1956 at the House of Living Judaism (also known as UAHC headquarters, located at 838 Fifth Avenue, in New York City). . . . . Thus began a glorious new journey.”
Standing On Their Shoulders
Very early on in my tenure as the executive director, I realized that I was standing on giant shoulders. On the shoulders of founders who had the vision and the wisdom and the skills and the commitment--the “Vision and the Will,” as it were—to carry out the building of a pioneering, trail-blazing organization.
There are 2 of those early leaders that I professionally and personally want to remember.
The aforementioned Alan Bennett, z”l, occupied many different roles in NATE and the Reform movement—he was a founder of NATE and served as our 7th president. He was the first chairman of the UAHC (later URJ) Reform Jewish Educator Title Granting Commission when it was established in 1983. As I mentioned before, Alan wrote The Vision and the Will: A History of the National Association of Temple Educators 1954-2004, which was published by the URJ Press in 2004—in honor of the 50th anniversary of our founding.
On a personal note, Alan was a wonderful advisor, confidant, and mentor to me--both during my time as a lay leader in our organization, and after I started in my role as NATE's executive director in 1999. I had fantastic opportunities to talk to Alan and pick his brain about the early days of NATE and the challenges they faced. It almost seemed like what it would be like if figures in our contemporary government were to have the ability to actually sit and talk to George Washington or James Madison or Alexander Hamilton. I always felt incredibly blessed to have Alan around during the first half of my tenure as our Executive Director.
And Richard Morin, z”l, also occupied many different roles in NATE. He served as our 16th president and was the first registrar of the UAHC Reform Jewish Educator Title Granting Commission when it was founded in 1983. Perhaps most importantly, Dick became NATE's first executive director in 1978, serving part-time in that role while he was still involved as a lay leader. Finally, after Dick finished his term as president in 1982, the number of hours that he worked for NATE began to significantly increase, as did the salary that NATE committed to the position.
Dick worked out of his house in Nashville, and so that was the location of the NATE office for the next 20 years, as so many of us fondly remember.
As with Alan, Dick was a wonderful mentor and advisor to me. I’ve often said that in my work, almost a day never went by without me encountering something that Dick had already been involved in, that had Dick's fingerprints all over it. During the 23 years that I had the honor of serving as the executive director of our growing and maturing organization, I was constantly aware that I was standing/stood on Dick's shoulders. And Alan's shoulders, too.
In fact, I first heard about these people growing up as a kid in a “NATE household.” I am proud that my father, Rolf Schickler, alav ha-shalom, was one of those original founders, and actually went on to become the 13th president of NATE exactly 50 years ago, in 1975-76.
As a refugee who had escaped from Germany with his parents at the end of 1937, my dad witnessed and became a part of the post-Holocaust surge in Jewish life. He, along with the other founders and early leaders of NATE, began to work to organize and plan for a new, unimagined future in the 20th century.
I remember that my dad would come home from NATE meetings and conferences that were held all over North America and a couple of times in Israel. He would talk about the things they did, the projects they worked on, and most importantly, the people he was working with.
In fact, it usually seemed to me that when he would return home from a conference or a meeting, what he was most excited about was having seen his colleagues who were all passionate partners in this exciting new, pioneering and trailblazing endeavor. I might add that many of the folks whose names I heard were the authors of the textbooks that we used in religious school, which felt very cool.
I think it is safe to say that Dick and Alan and my father and the rest of the founders and early leaders and members would be proud and gratified tonight that the little organization they founded as NATE all those decades ago has now reached its 70th birthday as the ARJE.
Ad mea v'esrim!
May chayil el Chayil
May we go from strength to strength!