Losing a penetrating voice

Rabbi Morris B. Margolies attained what Heschel called “moral grandeur” not solely through brilliant sermons and teaching, though both were thrilling for those of us lucky enough to have been raised on his words. He understood that spiritual convictions could not be confined to the prayer book or the synagogue, but must be exercised in the world at large, through community action, social protest and political criticism fervent enough to rattle the old stained-glass windows on The Paseo.

He had the truth-telling impulses of both a scholar and a muckraking journalist, combining historical reverence with an almost prophetic willingness to arouse and disturb, if that’s what it took to shake off complacency in his congregation and his city. No guide was more important to my parents (the late Milton Firestone and Bea Firestone Flam, who once co-owned and published The Chronicle) as they shaped The Jewish Chronicle over two decades, and no voice penetrated as sharply as his in advocating a Zionism of compassion and understanding, in hundreds of columns in these pages. Intentionally or not, he turned out to be a born editorial writer.

Through words and deeds, he opened the eyes and formed the consciences of tens of thousands of Kansas Citians.

David Firestone
Brooklyn, N.Y.