Morrie Kipper of Blessed Memory

Rabbi Morrie Kipper, the founder of the Alexander Muss High School in Israel, passed away on August 7. The following os my tribute to this great rabbi and visionary. May his memory be a blessing!

A few years ago, there was a bestseller by Mitch Album named “Tuesdays with Morrie.” In the book, the author had the privilege of spending a day once a week with his teacher.

If I were to title my thoughts at this sad time, I would entitle them “11 years with Morrie” for that is the truth. I was blessed in my life to have worked for Morrie and to have been mentored by him during some of the most formidable years of my adult life.

In 1979, when I was hired by High School in Israel (HIS), I was other than Morrie the only Reform or liberal Jew on the staff. Morrie took me under his wing almost immediately. He would constantly challenge me to reexamine my most basic assumptions. He would encourage me always to become a better teacher. He gave me opportunity to learn how to lead people. He helped me realize that this could be a difficult task and that I constantly needed to improve my skills. He helped me become more secure in my abilities.

Morrie taught me that a school which is not improving is a school that it in decline. For Morrie, there was no such thing as being static.

During the years that I worked for Morrie, he became a wonderful friend as well as mentor. I must admit that seeing him suffer from Parkinson’s was very difficult for me. To a large extent, this devastating disease had taken from him both his brilliance and the gleam in his eye.

I feel sad that I did not have more opportunities to see him during the past few years. I am blessed however that I was able to go and visit the Morrie and Lenore on my last trip to Miami.

Morrie taught me many things. He taught me to love Israel and gave to me the opportunity to use whatever God given skills that I possess to teach there. He taught me that in promoting the school or for that matter, in promoting anything worthwhile, one had to be a good salesman.

Above all, Morrie - He encouraged me to think “big.” What was the big idea that he sold to me and others? The big idea was that the American Jewish community was in serious trouble and that what we were doing at HSI, if we could make the school large enough, could really have an almost cosmic effect upon the community. We could create hoards of leaders for the next generation of American Jewry. Together, he and I dreamed that one day the school would bring to Israel 5,000 Jewish kids a year.

This dream would never be completely fulfilled. However, a tremendous difference has been made. Several of my former students are working in the Jewish community. Some have become presidents of synagogues, Federations and JCCs.

One of my students, Andy Kotzen (now Koren) is now the education director of Temple Emanuel in Greensboro. Often in our meetings, he will say to me something like “I remember when you taught us such and such at HSI.” This to me is amazing because he was in my class 25 years ago.

Another of my students was a young man who was incredibly bright. I asked him to read Frankl's “Man’s Search for Meaning” and to write a paper and a class presentation about the book. The presentation was incredible. The paper was 40 handwritten pages from a high school senior! That young man’s name is Wayne Firestone. Today Wayne serves as the president of International Hillel and has been recognized as one of the 50 most important Jewish leaders in the United States.

None of these things could or would have happened without Morrie’s vision or the unique ability he had to bring this vision to reality. I am only one person who has had the privilege to teach at HSI. Other teachers have similar stories I am sure.

Morrie’s vision was based upon the understanding that teens in the 11th and 12th grade were undergoing the most profound development in their adult identity. In his view, what happened during these years would influence these kids not only in college, but during the rest of their lives. The best way to do this would be to teach them Jewish history in Israel at this time. In his view, an understanding of Jewish history would be a tremendous force in creating and shaping Jewish identity. The result would be that students would speak of the history of the Jewish people not in the third person plural (they), but in the first person plural (we).

I think that it was in 1973 that He gave up a very successful career as a pulpit rabbi to start the High School in Israel. He had no money to do this, but he did have Lenore’s love and support. Above all, He had a vision that if he could succeed in creating the school, the lives of Jewish teens and the nature of the American Jewish community would be altered.

He did this at a time when most Jewish educators had given up on teens. His vision came to be and his theories have been proven correct over and over again.

From the lessons that I learned from him, I have dedicated my life to helping educate Jewish teens and above all knowing that no matter how difficult the task may be, we should never give up on helping them become Jews dedicated to Israel, Jewish learning, the Jewish community and study.

I cannot help but wonder if the founders of “Birthright Israel” had understood Morrie’s theories on Jewish education and adolescent development, how much more “bang for the buck” we all could have gotten. Truly, these teenage years are so incredibly formative, much more so that the post college years.

Morrie Kippur – For me, he was a great man. For me, he was a giant among the rabbis of the second half of the 20th century in the American Jewish community. He was my teacher and friend and I will always be grateful to him for what he taught me.
I learned from him for eleven incredible years. I am a stronger Jew because of him and from him, I learned how to be a better rabbi and a better person.

I loved Morrie and hope God will ease the pain pf Lenore, Avi and Meryl. Morrie’s students such as me spiritually send our love to your family from all over the world.

“For our teachers and their students, and the students of their students, we ask for Peace (shalom) and Loving-kindness (Hesed) and let us say “Amen.”"

From Rabbi Karen Kedar

I am sitting here in my Jerusalem apartment packing to return home to
Chicago. I just read Fred Guttman's beautiful words eulogizing Morrie
Kippur. My first job out of rabbinic school was with the AMHSI, which
Morrie founded. There I entered Morrie's world. In Morrie's world, I
learned the power of vision. I learned that Jewish history is the
powerful story of our people. I learned that Jewish identity is formed
while immersed in the drama of that story. I learned to become a
teacher, a storyteller, a lover of teens. I learned that when an
institution is driven by passion and vision, lives are transformed.
Morrie's vision and passion transformed the lives of the teachers at
AMHSI as well as several generations of teens. After 25 years of the
rabbinate, I will always consider my time in Morrie's world the most
influential of my career. Thank you Morrie. May his memory be for a
blessing.