Continuing the Journey, by Theresa Pease, Andover Bulletin, 1995
When Phillips Academy’s first Jewish chaplain processes onto the platform in front of Samuel Phillips Hall next month to offer Hebrew words of benediction at commencement, it will be for the last time. Rabbi Everett E. Gendler’s 19 years at Andover have been but one leg on a holy journey that has taken him all over the world. At 66, he will retire this spring to follow other roads.
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New use of solar power, by Frances Berg, Lowell Sun, 1979
In a move believed to be among the first of its kind in the nation, Lowell’s Temple Emanuel, 101 West Forest St., has installed solar panels solely to supply energy to the tiny “eternal light” burning in the Temple’s sanctuary. “In this era of energy conservation, we felt we no longer wished to take anything from the earth for a light which would be in use all the time,” explained Rabbi Everett Gendler.
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Lowell temple to dedicate solar-run Eternal Light, by Jerry Ackerman, Boston Evening Globe 1978
What better night than this, the longest of the year, and almost the eve of Chanukah, the festival of lights, for a Jewish congregation to seek a new source of energy for its Eternal Light, above the Holy Ark? Tonight, Temple Emanuel in Lowell will do just that, dedicating what may be the first solar-powered Eternal Light in a synagogue.
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Rabbi Gendler is leaving Phillips Academy after 18 years, by Alix Driscoll, 1995
Everett Gendler is a complex man. At Phillips Academy he taught a course called “Responses to the Holocaust and Non-Violence.” He advised both the Muslim and the Jewish student unions. At home, he raises most of the food for his family at his homestead in West Andover. He has collected thousands of books, so many they overflow into his barn. He’s the pastor at Temple Emanuel in Lowell. But that’s not all.
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Religious Inclusion on Campus, Then and Now, by Jane Dornbusch, Andover: the Magazine, Spring 2015
It was February 1973 when an alarming headline in The Phillipian identified a “crisis” on campus. The times were rife with change, to be sure, but it wasn’t the impending switch to coeducation that constituted this particular crisis. Nor was it students’ hair length or dissatisfaction over the Vietnam War or the social malaise that followed the Watergate scandal – though all of these factors may have played a role.
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Marblehead’s Alternative Religious Community: Searching for a New Way to Worship, by Linda Weltner, Boston Globe 1974
Marblehead’s Alternative Religious Community has no building, no address, no telephone number. Its members live in separate houses, lead most of their lives in nuclear families, dress no differently than their neighbors. It took one year before they seriously considered giving themselves a name, and when they did, the memo read: “ARC- part of the circumference of a circle, a shape which hints of its own completion, like a rainbow, beautiful because it is non-material, a creation of the imagination. ARK- Will it keep us afloat?”
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Renewing and Recycling: The Formation of American Jewish Environmentalism in the 1970s and 1980s, by Gabrielle Plotkin
Few environmental historians have considered how American Jews interacted with the postwar environmental movement. Those that have, often characterize American Jews as “urban” and separate from nature. However, I demonstrate that American Jewry’s involvement in left-leaning politics and inclination to both assimilate and remain committed to Judaism primed the community for participation in environmentalism. In the 1960s through 1980s, American Jews revitalized centuries-old Judaic environmental ethics and agricultural practices for a modern era.
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Interview with a Jewish Civil Rights Activist: Rabbi Everett Gendler, by Gail Gendler
When did you start working with the Civil Rights movement? I started working at my first congregation in Princeton, NJ in 1962 (after graduating from Jewish Theological Seminary- JTS). A rabbi colleague phoned and said, “King (Rev. Martin Luther King) really hit some roadblocks in Albany (GA) and he’s hoping that some Northern clergy can come participate in a prayer vigil. It might help boost the movement.”
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Interview -Rabbi Everett Gendler’s translation of Rabbi Aaron Samuel Tamares
The early decades of the twentieth century were a time of great upheaval in the life of Eastern European Jewry. The overthrowing of the Tzar, the Russian revolution, WWI, pogroms, poverty, and plagues left a Jewry bereft of the old but without a replacement to a new modern form of life.
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Following the Footsteps of the Prophets to Selma: A Conversation with Civil Rights Activist Rabbi Everett Gendler
Rabbi Everett Gendler is known for his involvement in progressive causes, including the civil rights movement, nonviolence, and environmental justice. From 1978-1995, he served as the first Jewish Chaplain at Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, and is the author of Judaism for Universalists. We spoke with him on March 3, 2020.
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Life in a Time of Pandemic and Civil Unrest
Rabbi Everett Gendler has long written passionately, incisively, and extensively about two of the issues currently roiling American society in this time of pandemic and civil unrest – how to define the relationship between faith and nature and how to achieve the ideal of social justice.
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At Sarasota Synagogue Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.
A rabbi who was once jailed with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the ultimate compliment to a black poetry reader after a tribute to King at Temple Emanu-El in Sarasota. Eleven rabbis were jailed with King in Albany, Georgia, for “public prayer without a license” in 1962.
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Looking for heroes? Look in the mirror.
My kids love superhero stories. These stories fill their imaginations about what they could do if they had great powers. I’m all for fantastical thinking, but I also want them to know that they don’t need superpowers to be the hero of their own story. I do this by teaching them about real people who’ve worked to make the world a better place. I start with our own family hero: my uncle, Rabbi Everett Gendler.
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Chariton’s amazing Rabbi Gendler & Hy-Vee, too (part 1)
Ok, so it’s a little presumptuous to claim Rabbi Everett Gendler as Chariton’s own, although like all true Lucas Countyans of certain ages (like me), he was born at Yocom Hospital — on August 8, 1928. And he lived here with his parents, Max and Sara Gendler, and sister, Annette, until he turned 11. Then the family moved to Des Moines. But I’m going to stake the claim anyway.
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Chariton’s Amazing Rabbi Gendler (part 2)
This is the second of two posts about Rabbi Everett Gendler, born in Chariton during 1928, and his family, parents Max and Sara and sister, Annette, and others. The Max Gendler family lived in Chariton until 1939, when they moved to Des Moines. Their principal business was Gendler grocery, located on the southeast corner of the square in the building that now houses Chariton Floral.
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Martin, Everett, and Me
I am writing this essay on the fortieth anniversary of my father’s death, so my immediate thought about Martin Luther King, Jr. this morning is of those four precious small children left fatherless on April 4, 1968.
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Rabbi Everett Gendler Reflects on His (and Our) Jewish Life in the Berkshires
“The Berkshires has long been a place where people have built domiciles that announce, ‘We made it.’ But even in a region abounding in dream homes, the residence of Rabbi Everett Gendler and his wife Mary stands out by saying ‘We made it’ in an entirely different way. The house is sited near Monument Mountain on a stunning property that sprawls from the road past a hayfield, down to a creek and then nearly to the top of a forested hillside beyond – ‘paradise,’ says Rabbi Gendler, a characterization that is impossible to argue against.”
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How the 87-Year-Old Founder of Jewish Environmentalism Helped Me Grow
“I didn’t didn’t want to interview Rabbi Everett Gendler. In November, my editor sent me a note about Gendler’s new book Judaism for Universalists, a collection of the progressive rabbi’s writings on his experience and interpretation of Judaism, and suggested I write about him. I looked Gendler up, and was impressed. He’d been an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement, was the father of the now-thriving Jewish environmentalism movement in the United States, had spent the last two decades helping organize nonviolent resistance in Tibet in collaboration with the Dalai Lama, and had, most intriguingly, been a consistent thorn in the side of the Jewish establishment.”
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Two ‘giants’ of the civil rights movement to speak at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire
On Friday June 20 at 7:30 PM Al Vorspan and Rabbi Everett Gendler will speak at Shabbat services about their participation in the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and their commitment to “Tikkun Olam” (healing the world).
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Martin Luther King in the Catskills, 1968
“On March 25, 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King delivered the keynote address at the annual Rabbinical Assembly Convention at the renowned Concord Hotel in Kiamesha Lake in the Sullivan County Catskills.  Ten days later he was dead.”
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A Lexicon of Spiritual Leaders In the IFOR Peace Movement (Rabbi Gendler bio is on page 137)
“Everett Gendler (born August 8, 1928) is an American rabbi, known for his involvement in progressive causes, including the American civil rights movement, Jewish nonviolence, and the egalitarian Jewish Havurah movement. From 1978-1995, he served as the first Jewish Chaplain at Phillips Academy, Andover. He has been described as the “father of Jewish environmentalism”
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King’s legacy of faith, USA Today
“I could not know that the evening’s speaker would be murdered 10 days later. I could not realize how his words would affect my rabbinate for the next 40 years, or how sharply his message would contrast with today’s most prominent voices that speak for religion.”
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My Favorite Rabbis: Everett Gendler, Shalom Rav
“Most people probably don’t realize this, but rabbis need rabbis too. And there are a lot of great rabbis out there. Over the years I’ve been personally inspired by many of them: remarkable, talented leaders whose work challenges me, drives me and constantly reminds me why I do what I do.”
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Rabbi Gendler on Rosh Hashanah, Velveteen Rabbi
“Rabbi Everett Gendler was among the first rabbis to talk seriously about ecology and its relationship to Judaism, and was (according to Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb) the first rabbi to create a solar-powered ner tamid (eternal light.) He contributed to the volumes The Greening of Faith and Ecology and the Jewish Spirit; the folks at Isabella Freedman call him “the grandfather of Jewish agriculture (sic).” He contributed to The First Jewish Catalog (and its successor volumes), and wrote many of the margin commentaries in The Jewish Holidays.”
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I have a dream. Martin Luther King, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Everett Gendler and me, The Energizer Rabbi
“This weekend we mark two things, the birthday of Martin Luther King jr and the yahrzeit of Abraham Joshua Heschel. Forever linked in a famous photo, these two men linked arm and arm to make the world a better place. They shared a common vision born out of their different yet similar backgrounds. Heschel, a European Jew who escaped Poland prior to the Holocaust and became one of the most prominent rabbis of the 20th century, knew oppression first hand. These two men from different geographies, color, creed, theological background were joined in a spiritual kinship whose legacy addresses our own times.”
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Rabbi is Jailed for Segregation Protest in South
“The New Rabbi at The Princeton Jewish Center, Everett Gendler of 21 Forrester Drive, was jailed on Tuesday at an anti-segregation demonstration in front of City Hall in Albany, GA.”
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Nine Rabbis Among Seventy Arrested for Anti-Segregation Protest
“Nine rabbis were among the 70 religious leaders from cities in the North and Midwest, who were arrested here yesterday when they participated in an anti-segregation protest at City Hall. The rabbis, who were lodged in the county Jail last night, took part in the demonstration with readings from the Book of Psalms.”
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What is Rabbi’s Role at Convention?, Forward
“When Rabbi Everett Gendler was released from jail in Albany, Ga., in 1962 he and the 11 other rabbis jailed with him for “public prayer without a license” each found a Western Union telegram waiting. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary, sent to them a message with a verse from Isaiah 5:16 “And the Lord of Hosts is exalted by judgment, the Holy God proved holy by justice.” Rabbi Gendler said in a phone interview with the Forward that “it is clear that what he was saying is that this stance and this witnessing is what religion is about.”
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Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb’s letter to the commissioners at the United Church of Canada Conference, Jewish Voice for Peace
“My rabbi and teacher, Rabbi Everett Gendler, convinced the great human rights advocate Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel to walk with Martin Luther King. I stand in their legacy of nonviolent direct action. When the African American community called upon us to support the Montgomery bus boycott, I stood with them. When the Mexican American community called upon us to support the grape boycott, I stood with them.”
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Reform Rabbis Debate Virtues of a Veggie Diet, Jweekly
“Richard Levy remembers well a conversation he had with a fellow student in his first year of rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. The two rabbis-to-be were discussing Jewish dietary restrictions, and felt that Reform Jews should eat pork on principle.”
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Rabbi States Ways of Life Cause Southern Prejudice, The Daily Princetonian
“The repression in society of certain good- human qualities, like sensuality, may be a cause of the prejudice the Southern white has for the Negro, argued Rabbi Everett E. Gendler in an informal lecture last night. Claiming that evil caused by conditions rather than residing in human nature, Mr. Gendler explained ways of life in the South which may cause bigotry. Free expression of the compassionate association a white man often has with a Negro is denied the Southerner in his society, Mr. Gendler observed.”
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Rabbi Everett Gendler’s Story, Berkshire Health Systems
“He marched alongside and was arrested with Martin Luther King Jr. in Albany, Georgia, in 1962, one of dozens of rabbis and other clerics who joined the emerging American civil rights movement, determined to confront firmly yet peacefully the centuries of oppression born of black slavery. He was there in Selma, too, and in Birmingham, “when the police dogs and fire hoses were out.” His role in encouraging fellow Jews to join the chorus was seen as a pivotal turning point in a monumental cause.”
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During ‘The Feast of Lights’ be Mindful of Conservation, COEJL
“Think Hanukkah. Think light. Think energy. Today we can bring new meanings to the celebration of Hanukkah related to our use of energy, conservation, and our moral responsibility to protect the environment and all its inhabitants. When better to think about energy and light than during winter when the darkest days of the year are upon us?”
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20 Rabbis Head for Birmingham
“May 7—Twenty Conservative rabbis left tonight for Birmingham, Ala., in a ‘testimony in behalf of the human rights and dignity’ of Negroes in that city. Their decision was made late this afternoon after Rabbi Bernard Mandelbaum, provost of the jewish Theological Seminary, principal institution of Conservative Judaism, posed the question of how spiritual leaders ‘could be concerned only with Nazi cruelty when acts of injustice to fellow human beings were taking place in our country.’”
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Jewish ‘Dropouts’ Found Unstructured Synagogue, New York Times, February 12, 1972
We will not extinguish these Sabbath candles. To me they symbolize Judaism and the people that uphold its principles. Judaism is the lamp that lights the way for many. After years of struggle against wind and water, always a spark remains to keep the lamp going. Susan Vorchheimer, who is 11 years old, wrote these words…
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Conversation with Martin Luther King
“On the evening of March 25, 1968, ten days before he was killed, Dr. Martin Luther King, zikhrono livrakhah, appeared at the sixty-eighth annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly. He responded to questions which had been submitted in advance to Rabbi Everett Gendler, who chaired the meeting”
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Long Happy Life of Rabbi Gendler
“In 1995, after more than 20 years of teaching and spiritual leadership, Rabbi Everett Gendler stepped down from his dual posts of rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Lowell, and Jewish Chaplain and instructor of philosophy and religious studies at Phillips Academy in Andover. Though now officially “retired,” his work continues to educate and inspire people from Massachusetts to members of the Tibetan community in exile in India.”
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What Would Noah Do?
On a ferociously cold evening in November 1978, Rabbi Everett Gendler climbed atop the icy roof of Temple Emanuel in Lowell, Mass., and installed solar panels to fuel the synagogue’s ner tamid (eternal light).
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Honors and Awards

Rabbi Everett Gendler received the T’ruah Human Rights Hero Award
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Rabbi Everett Gendler Receives Presidents’ Medallion from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
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