Alfred Gottschalk

Alfred Gottschalk (March 7, 1930 – September 12, 2009) was a German-born American rabbi who was a leader in the Reform Judaism movement, serving as head of the movement's Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC) for 30 years; as a president from 1971 to 1996, and then as chancellor until 2000. In that role, Rabbi Gottschalk oversaw the ordination of the first women to be ordained as rabbis in the United States and Israel, and he oversaw the development of new HUC campuses in Jerusalem, Los Angeles and New York City, three of the school's four campuses. As a nine-year-old, Gottschalk was forced out of his classroom by a Nazi shouting: "Jews, raus! [out], raus! RAUS!", an incident that his successor as President of HUC, Rabbi David Ellenson described as being the impetus behind Gottschalk's "life's work on behalf of the Jewish people and humanity" and as one that Gottschalk would recall with "sadness, humiliation, and fury" 50 years later. He attended Boys High School and made the choice to become a rabbi when he was 15 years old, having heard speeches from Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise. After his father died, Gottschalk helped support the family by playing semi professional football. As HUC's president, he relocated its New York City campus from the Upper West Side to a Greenwich Village location near New York University. Rabbi Gottschalk called the ordination of Priesand "historic", one that breaks stereotypes and allows "Jewish women to consider seeking the rabbinate" and a testament to Reform Judaism's efforts at achieving "equality of women in the congregation of the Lord". Priesand wept when Gottschalk spoke with her as she was handed her ordination certificate. In July 1992, he oversaw the "historic and symbolic" ordination of Israel's first woman rabbi, Naamah Kelman. After years of blocking the admission or ordination of suspected gay or lesbian students, Gottschalk reluctantly permitted the admission of gay and lesbian students to the school beginning around 1990. The seminary later established the Institute for Judaism and Sexual Orientation to help create opportunities for active participation by gays and lesbians in the Jewish life cycle.

Holocaust memorialization Appointed by President of the United States Jimmy Carter to a commission tasked with developing a memorial to the Holocaust, Gottschalk advocated on behalf of something more substantial than a monument, leading to the development of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum which opened in 1993 adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Rabbi David Ellenson delivered a eulogy in funeral services held in Cincinnati's Isaac M. Wise Temple.

He was survived by his second wife, the former Deanna Zeff Frank, as well as by a daughter and a son from his first wife, and their five grandchildren, together with two stepsons and their four children. His first marriage, to the former Gina Schrag (Regina Marilyn Schrag), ended in divorce.