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Wise celebrates Senior Rabbi Kamrass’ 25th year By Barbara L. Morgenstern Assistant Editor
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The numbers seemed risky — too young at age 29 to become the senior rabbi of the venerable Isaac M. Wise Temple, founded in 1840 at the beginnings of the Reform Judaism movement. Too little experience, with only threeand-a-half years as an assistant rabbi, when a minimum of 10, technically, was required by the rabbinic organization. “When I look back, there were real reasons for that rule,” said Senior Rabbi Lewis H. Kamrass, now 50, speaking of the tenure requirement that was waived. “You have to have a certain depth of experience and knowledge of the rhythm of running an organization.” Compensating for his lack of experience with what he described as exceptional mentors, he leads a congregation 25 years later that has grown to 1,350 families — more than 3,000 congregants — one of the 25 largest Reform temples in the United States. This growth, he said, “is an affirmation of the energy of the place.” To honor Kamrass on this milestone, some 800 persons earlier this month attended a special Shabbat service at the congrega-
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Senior Rabbi Lewis H. Kamrass
tion’s historic Plum Street Temple in downtown Cincinnati. Rabbi David Ellenson, president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, awarded Kamrass an
Wise Temple Senior Rabbi Lewis H. Kamrass, left, in 1994 with his mentors, Senior Rabbi Alan D. Fuchs and the late Dr. Jacob Rader Marcus, seated, professor at Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion.
honorary doctorate and the next evening, about 600 attended a celebratory dinner and dance at Cincinnati Music Hall. “So many people,” the rabbi reflected, “but they weren’t strangers to me.” To mark the occasion, a social action fund was endowed at the temple in honor of the rabbi and his wife Renée. He is the seventh senior rabbi in Wise Temple’s history. The congregation hired Kamrass during troubled times in 1985, remembered Dr. Edward H. Saeks, temple president from 1975-77. He said Senior Rabbi Alan D. Fuchs, who had brought on Kamrass as an assistant rabbi three years earlier, was leaving for a congregation in Philadelphia. “We were a congregation at that point in turmoil…struggling to get ahead,” Saeks said. “We had made a very late move out of Avondale to here (Amberley Village). We had lost half of our congregation. We lost most of our religious school population.” After a national search, support grew for Kamrass when a congregational survey returned 705 “yes we want Rabbi Kamrass postcards;” three “nos;” and a couple of “maybes,” Saeks said. Although the congregation was united in its desire to hire Kamrass, KAMRASS on page 19
Rubashkin legal team vowing to fight conviction, 27-year sentence By Ron Kampeas Jewish Telegraphic Agency WASHINGTON (JTA) -- For years Sholom Rubashkin made his living as an executive in the country’s largest kosher meatpacking company. Now to keep him out of prison his defense team is arguing that the judge in his financial fraud case made treif use out of federal sentencing guidelines. The judge, Linda Reade, on the federal bench in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, used a federal point system
in deciding this week to sentence the former meatpacking executive to 27 years in prison. Sophisticated crime? Check, that's 2 points. Fraud in the $20$50 million range? Check, that's 22 points. Was he a boss of the criminal enterprise? Check, that's 4 points. Did he perjure himself? Another 2 points. In the end, Reade said Rubashkin scored 41 points. According to federal sentencing guidelines, that earns a sentence of between 324 and 405 months. Reade handed down
324 -- 27 years -- and ordered another five years probation. Rubashkin also will be required to make restitution of nearly $27 million to several financial institutions. The sentence follows a conviction on defrauding two banks that had extended the slaughterhouse lines of credit. Rubashkin contends that he was desperate to keep the business afloat, and that had he had the opportunity to do so, he would have repaid the advances. Read assessed the fraud at close to $27 million.
Rubashkin's lawyers said that amounted to a life sentence for the 51-year-old father of 10, and that that they planned to appeal the sentence, on top of an appeal of the conviction. "This is a stain on American justice, and it gets to be a bigger and bigger stain all the time," Nathan Lewin told JTA. Defense lawyers dismissed claims that anti-Semitism underpinned the case. "Nobody responsible has made that allegation," Lewin said. Instead, the lawyers
said, the prosecutors "overzealousness" had more to do with the profoundly negative publicity in the leadup to the raid. In particular, Lewin cited media stories he said were "defamatory" that described alleged abuses of the immigrants who worked at the plant, claims by People for the Erhical Treatment of Animals that the cattle suffered immensely, and opposition from local unions because the shop was not organized.
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CONVICTION on page 4
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