Irving J. Block, 1923-2002

Rabbi Irving J. Block was the founding rabbi of the Brotherhood Synagogue, Congregation Beth Achim, which he led from 1954 through his retirement in 1994. Rabbi Block was born to Orthodox parents from Poland and Lithuania, Philip and Mae Lena (Slotnick) Block, on March 17, 1923 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. After serving in Panama in the U.S. Army during WWII, he received his B.S. from the University of Connecticut in 1947, and then he studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and served in Haganah 1947-1948. Returning to the United States, he received a Master of Hebrew Letters and was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City in 1953. In 1978, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion awarded him the Doctor of Divinity.

Reverend Dr. Jesse W. Stitt (1904-1971), leader of the Village Presbyterian Church in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, from 1939 to 1971, encouraged Rabbi Block to establish the Brotherhood Synagogue and share his Church’s sanctuary on 13th Street. Block founded the Brotherhood Synagogue on five principles: a free pulpit, free pews, social service, community service, and brotherhood with the Village Presbyterian Church. Dr. Stitt said, “There have been examples going back to Colonial times of churches and synagogues sharing buildings, but only on a temporary basis…We believe that our liaison represents the first time a church and synagogue have ever established a permanent relationship as brothers and partners.” 1

Both the Church and the Synagogue worked to translate their ideals of brotherhood into reality and into their local community. For example, they jointly sponsored and housed the Greenwich Mews Theatre (formerly the Lemonade Opera). The theater, which Stella Holt directed beginning in 1952, had racially integrated casts and showcased the work of Latino and African-American playwrights, such as Langston Hughes. In his retirement sermon, Dr. Stitt said of the theater company, “These actors and actresses have sought to interpret the great social and religious truths which the Rabbi and I have tried to interpret to you from this Pulpit.” 2

Dr. Stitt retired from the Village Presbyterian Church in June 1971. The Presbytery of New York City assigned Reverend William Glenesk to the Church in September 1971. With Glenesk’s entrance, considerable discord arose. The tension came to a head with Glenesk and Block’s differing politics on the Yom Kippur War, following which the members of the Brotherhood Synagogue voted to separate from the Village Presbyterian Church. The congregation, numbering 600, officially moved out of the sanctuary in April 1974, and in the summer found a new home in a former Friends Meeting House on Gramercy Park, moving in in spring 1975.

The Brotherhood Synagogue continued to be open to and provide access and outreach across denominations and social divides. They opened a homeless shelter in 1983, their religious school developed programs for children with special needs, and they provided space for support groups of many types, such as for people suffering from Alzheimer’s, alcoholism or depression.

As for which branch of Judaism Block identified himself and his congregation with, he wrote in a memoir draft, “I feel as though I am an Orthodox rabbi serving a Conservative congregation, most of whose members are Reform.” 3 On a survey in 1992, he checked Conservative off as his affiliation. 4 A 1975 letter from then President William Cohen defines the congregation as follows, “Ours is not a Reform congregation, but rather an amalgam of all three groupings in Jewish life, veering to the traditional or conservative.” 5 On its website, the Brotherhood Synagogue currently defines itself as “a progressive congregation in the Conservative Jewish tradition.” 6

Over time Rabbi Block participated on the boards of the American Association for Ethiopian Jews, New York Board of Rabbis (NYBR), Joint Passover Association, New York Association for New Americans, Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, Open Congregation and Religion in American Life. Block served as chaplain for the 369th Veterans Association, the New York State Masonic Order and Jewish War Veterans, and as a prison chaplain for NYBR for one year in 1974. Block was also concerned with the issue of substance abuse in the Jewish community and served as Co-Chairman of the UJA-Federation Commission on Synagogue Relations’ Task Force on Addictions in the Jewish Community. Other organizations in which Rabbi Block was active include American Veterans of Israel, Jewish War Veterans and Life Services for the Handicapped. He lectured widely, appeared on numerous radio and television programs and received numerous awards for his work. Following his 1994 retirement, he worked on his memoir, which was published in 1999 as A Rabbi and His Dream: Building the Brotherhood Synagogue .

In 1964, Rabbi Block married Phyllis Susan Robinove, whom he first met during an evening social at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. Phyllis Block, an editor of foreign language textbooks, also edited the Synagogue Bulletin and the Memorial Book for thirty years, and she organized and expanded the Synagogue’s library after the move to the Gramercy location. They had one son, Herbert Block. Rabbi Block died on October 31, 2002 of complications due to Parkinson’s.

References

Block, Irving J. A Rabbi and His Dream: Building the Brotherhood Synagogue: a Memoir. Hoboken, NJ: KTAV, 1999.

From the guide to the Irving J. Block Papers, 1944-2008 (bulk 1953-2002), (American Jewish Historical Society)