RABBI YONAH GELLER

Community, family mourn Rabbi Geller

By Paul Haist

When Rabbi Yonah Geller died on the evening of Nov. 15, after falling two days before from his porch steps in Northwest Portland, a pillar of Portland’s Jewish community was taken away.

The news spread quickly and, while the passing of an 87-year-old man may not have been a surprise, it was sharply stunning in that everyone knew our community had lost one of its brightest stars.

While Rabbi Geller’s absence may have been instantly palpable, a sudden dimming in the firmament over Jewish life here, there also was consensus that this community has been unalterably blessed and made better and forever more radiant by the nearly half century presence here of the thoughtful and scholarly Texan who led Congregation Shaarie Torah from 1960 to 2000, and who continued to serve as rabbi emeritus until the day he died.

At the funeral service Nov. 18 in the spacious sanctuary at Shaarie Torah, every seat was filled, while late-comers lined the walls—testimony to the respect, admiration and love accorded Rabbi Geller.
   
Rabbi Arthur Zuckerman, who stepped into the Shaarie Torah pulpit Aug. 15, set the tone.
   
“I stand before you today not only as the rabbi of Congregation Shaarie Torah, but as a student of Rabbi Geller,” said Zuckerman. “If I would have met Rabbi Geller 20 years ago, I would have been that much better a rabbi.”
   
Cantor David Rosenberg, who served alongside Rabbi Geller at Shaarie Torah from 1989 to the turn of century, sang “The 23rd Psalm.”
   
After the funeral, Rosenberg said of Rabbi Geller, “He was more than a rabbi to me. He was in many ways my father. He mentored me and guided me, not only on a professional level, but also on a personal level.” Rosenberg said he would miss Geller very much.
   
Both Rabbi Joshua Stampfer, emeritus rabbi at Congregation Neveh Shalom, and Rabbi Emanuel Rose, emeritus rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel, recalled their long association with Rabbi Geller.
   
Geller, Stampfer and Rose were the subjects of the recent award-winning Oregon Public Broadcasting documentary “The Three Rabbis,” produced by Portlander Gloria Feves Hammer.
   
That film examined the uncommon contributions to Portland’s Jewish community and the larger secular community by the three men, each of whom came to Portland at about the same time where they distinguished themselves at the city’s three largest Jewish congregations, one Orthodox, one Conservative and one Reform.
   
Stampfer spoke first. He recalled President Bill Clinton’s remark on the death of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Clinton turned to Hebrew on that occasion. “Shalom, chaver” (Peace, friend), he said.
   
Stampfer said that when he greeted Rabbi Geller’s wife Lisl just before the service, she said to him, “You have lost a good friend.”
   
“We have all lost a friend,” said Stampfer, who recalled key contributions made by his late friend.
   
Stampfer pointed to Portland Jewish Academy, in the creation of which, then as Hillel Academy housed at Shaarie Torah, Rabbi Geller played an important role. “He was involved in every aspect,” said Stampfer.
   
Stampfer, a Conservative rabbi, also credited his Orthodox friend for his uncommon participation in the creation of the highly successful Introduction to Judaism course in Portland, unique across America for the participation of both Orthodox and liberal Jewish streams in educating thousands of students in the rudiments of Judaism.
   
“I’m not sure that all of us realize that it is the only such program in the country,” said Stampfer.
   
Likewise, Stampfer pointed to Geller’s role in establishing the Oregon Board of Rabbis and serving as its only Orthodox member. Stampfer and Rose also were co-founders of the OBR.
   
“We believe in the greater need of the Jewish community over the needs of any individual movement,” said Stampfer, speaking of the Board of Rabbis. “We owe it to Rabbi Geller that it survived. He was the all-inclusive rabbi…the cardiologist of the Jewish heart, he dedicated himself to healing the Jewish people.”
   
Rabbi Rose, a Reform rabbi, expressed similar sentiments about the Board of Rabbis and Rabbi Geller, who, he said, had “deep and sincere commitments to his Orthodox rabbinate.”
   
“Rabbi Geller chose to participate with us not as judge, but as a partner and a unifier, for that is what he was,” said Rose. “If it were not for Rabbi Geller, we would not have had one Orthodox voice on the Oregon Board of Rabbis.”
   
Rose singled out Geller for his gift for calming troubled waters.
   
“Rabbi Geller had an amazing and marvelous characteristic of ameliorating conflict and anger. That is why he is so widely respected in our community,” said Rose.
   
“I never felt anything but respect from Rabbi Geller,” he added. “Rabbi Geller was truly one who loved all God’s creation.”
   
Charles R. Schiffman spoke in his capacity as executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland and a friend of Rabbi Geller.
   
“Rabbi Geller had a phrase he used to say, ‘The Malach haMaves (Angel of Death) has been busy this week.’ Indeed, this week he has been busy in Portland and he has struck a blow that has filled us with despair.”
   
But even though Rabbi Geller is gone, said Schiffman, “His neshama (soul) is here.”
   
Rabbi Michel Geller remembered his brother. Together, they comprised the seventh continuous generation of rabbis in their family.
   
Michel Geller, who suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized the day after his brother’s funeral, later returning to his late brother’s house to recuperate, said, “My brother paved the way for me. If not for him, I wouldn’t be the rabbi I am today, though retired.”
   
In a voice that often failed him, Michel Geller asked and answered what it was that led his brother to the kind of leadership the earlier speakers made note of.
   
“What made him do what he did was an inner burning in his heart, his love of Torah; it was truly a love of Yiddishkeit.”
   
Speaking for all the grandchildren of Rabbi and Lisl Geller, Michael Geller, the rabbi’s oldest grandson, recalled the many letters his grandfather sent to him and the other grandchildren.
   
He took the occasion to speak a letter of his own to his grandfather.
   
“Dear Grandpa,” he said, “your house is full of life.”
   
He recalled an idyllic summer of his childhood that he spent in Portland with his grandparents when he learned “what it meant to be a Geller in Portland.”
   
In his time of loss, Michael Geller took a longer view. “We thank Hashem each day for the blessings upon us,” he said.
   
Rabbi Geller’s son Rabbi Dr. Ivan Geller came from London to unite with his family in their time of loss.
   
“He was a principled man, a methodical man and a very dignified man,” he said.
   
“My parents found sustenance in the lovely people of this community.”
   
Perhaps in reference to the Shaarie Torah’s break with the Orthodox Union several years ago, he said that his father “confronted the challenges and searched for viable solutions.”
   
Michael Geller also took the occasion to comment on Shaarie Torah’s future.
   
He said he believed his father “felt the synagogue was now secure…with a wonderful, energetic new rabbi.”
   
“I think my father finally sat back and said, ‘Shaarie Torah has now what it needs to last another 100 years.”