SR1724 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR1724 LRB098 23498 MST 62675 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois State Senate were saddened to learn of the passing of Rabbi Isaac Neuman, a resident of Central Illinois for the past 40 years, on November 17, 2014; and

WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman, who was born in Zdunska Wola, Poland in 1922, was a survivor of Nazi death camps and slave labor (Junikowo, St. Martin's, Fuerstenfelde, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Fuenfteichen, Gross-Rosen, Mauthausen, Wels and Ebensee); and

WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman lost nearly his entire family in the Holocaust, including both his parents, 6 sisters, a younger brother, and a grandmother; his left forearm was tattooed with his number from Auschwitz: 143945; his Ebensee camp was liberated by National Guard soldiers of the United States Army's 80th infantry division in May of 1945; and

WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman was one of the very few people in America who first received a traditional Jewish education in some of the most prestigious Talmudic academies in Poland (Yeshivat Chachmei in Lublin, Eitz Chaim in Kalisch and Emek Halacha in Warsaw) and was later ordained as a Rabbi by the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio; he was awarded a Doctor of Divinity Degree by the Hebrew Union College in 1985; and

WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman bore witness to Nazi atrocities through lectures, teaching, and appearances at churches, high schools, colleges, and universities (including Parkland College and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) throughout Illinois and around the world; and

WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman served as Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Champaign from 1974 to 1987, and as Rabbi Emeritus thereafter; and

WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman helped re-establish Jewish communities in Germany and educated rabbis and educators across the United States, Europe, and Latin America over a period 60 years; and

WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman served on the board that created the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., (under a presidential appointment by President Ronald Reagan) and later was part of a delegation representing President George W. Bush at the dedication of the museum at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem; and

WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman served as Auxiliary Chaplain at Chanute Air Force Base from 1974 until its closing; he also ministered to members of United States Armed Forces in bases and installations around the world over a period of 40 years; and

WHEREAS, After retiring from Sinai Temple, Rabbi Isaac Neuman returned to East Berlin in 1987-88, the first new rabbi there since the war, and established a congregation within walking distance of Hitler's bunker; and

WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman was a leader in interfaith activities, serving as President of the Ministerial Association of Champaign-Urbana; during his time as a rabbi at Sinai, he welcomed dozens of different church group as visitors to Friday night services at Sinai Temple; he also participated, with interfaith clergy, in the historic civil-rights march in 1965 in Selma, Alabama, with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and

WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman twice delivered the opening prayer in the United States House of Representatives, in 1970 and later in 1983; and

WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman's memoir, "The Narrow Bridge: Beyond the Holocaust", co-authored with Michael Palencia-Roth and published by the University of Illinois Press, is an important first-hand account of the Nazi's crimes against humanity; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of the Rabbi Isaac Neuman, and extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, the Champaign-Urbana and University of Illinois communities, and all who knew and loved him; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Rabbi Isaac Neuman as an expression of our deepest sympathy.