Rabbi John Friedman — a Kansas City native who grew up an active member of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah — met Congregation Beth Torah’s Rabbi Mark Levin in rabbinical school. They’ve been best friends ever since.
Rabbi Friedman has known Rabbi Rebecca Reice, Beth Torah’s new education rabbi, since she was born. So it’s fitting that he will be coming to his best friend’s congregation in his hometown to give the installation speech for one of his prized students on Friday, Aug. 24. Nosh begins at 6 p.m. with the service starting at 6:30 p.m.
Rabbi Friedman has been the rabbi of Judea Reform Congregation in Durham, N.C., for 32 years. His synagogue serves the Jewish communities of Durham, Chapel Hill and surrounding areas. He was ordained at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, along with Rabbi Levin, in 1976.
Rabbi Reice is thrilled he will be attending her installation.
“I think it feels like a completed circle in my life. He has been my rabbi forever,” she said.
“I can recite for you every part of my lifecycle he’s been a part of. From my baby naming as an infant, to my consecration when I started my religious education, I can still tell you what he told me. It made a big impact on me. … I did his daughter’s wedding. I can’t imagine anybody else speaking at my installation,” Rabbi Reice continued.
In total, six of Rabbi Friedman’s students have become rabbis over the years and another is attending rabbinical school now.
“This is a wonderful congregation and a great petri dish to grow rabbis in. We are a very text-oriented place and I’m very proud of every one of them,” Rabbi Friedman said.
One of Rabbi Friedman’s passions today is social justice. Since moving to North Carolina in 1980, he has served as president of Durham Congregations in Action and was instrumental in founding Genesis Home, a shelter for homeless families. He is a recipient of the Martin Luther King “Keeper of the Dream” Award, the City of Durham “Better Human Relations” Award and the Elna Spaulding Medal for Social Justice for his work in race relations. From 1991 to 1995, Rabbi Friedman was chair of the Central Conference of American Rabbi’s Interreligious Affairs and is past-president of the Mid-Atlantic Region of the CCAR. For many years he chaired the United Way’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program.
“I have a lot of people who come to me when they are in dire straits for financial aid and the congregation is generous with my funds. We help them that way and also with food cards,” Rabbi Friedman said.
He patterned this activity after the senior rabbi he first served with Emanuel Congregation in Chicago, Rabbi Herman E. Schaalman.
“When I was an assistant rabbi in Chicago my senior rabbi used to do the same thing. It’s a great way to give tzedakah anonymously. People give to this mitzvah fund and I act as the mediator and distribute the funds directly to the poor with no overhead. And they don’t know the person to whom they give and the person who receives doesn’t know the donor, which is exactly what Maimonides lists as the second-highest level of charity,” Rabbi Friedman said.
He also serves as national co-chair of JStreet’s rabbinic council, which upholds the principle that the Palestinians also have a right to a national home of their own, living side-by-side with Israel in peace and security.
“We think that the answer to the conflict is to establish two states, one in the occupied territories and one state with a line that will be established by the two parties. It is important to get that, not only for the well-being and the human rights of Palestinians but for the well-being of Israel so that Israel doesn’t become a state of Jews ruling over a majority of Palestinians,” Rabbi Friedman said.
Since his mother passed away in 2009, he doesn’t get back here often and in fact hasn’t been here since the stone setting in 2010. A 1967 graduate of Shawnee Mission South, he still has lots of friends here that he keeps in touch with, including Billy Ginsberg, Randy Merker and Larry Lehman. But other than his wife, his closest friend and confidant is Rabbi Levin.
“He’s like my brother. We met in rabbinical school and we studied together and we spent time together every day while we were at HUC in Cincinnati and we’ve stayed close throughout the years,” Rabbi Friedman said.
Rabbi Friedman has written articles that have been published in The Journal of Reform Judaism, Brotherhood Magazine, Judaism and Compass among others. His wife, Nan, is a recently retired physician who was affiliated with Duke University Medical Center. The Friedmans have two grown children.