Arnold Jacob Wolf

Dear Daughters, Noga, Nurete and Neeva – and whomsoever else:
About Arnold J. Wolf

I wrote for Arnold J. Wolf. I wrote with him in my mind reading and judging what I was writing. And I had the zchut to tell him so a few days before he died. I also told him that in my mind I was always being judged by my own inner tribunal, you, Gene Borowitz and Martin Cohen. They made me the rabbi I am. One pulpit rabbi, two academic yeshiva rabbis and teachers. Almost 50 years has this been...

Rabbi Wolf was both larger than life and totally accessible. At the beginnings of Congregation Solel in the late 50s and early 60s, back when religious school was held at Red Oak School, I was a very young boy and he was loud, funny, and intense, but yet always approachable. For me, he remained so all through the years he was my Rabbi and each time I saw him in the years after that. He listened, challenged, and then listened some more. He counseled. He praised. He argued. He laughed. He...

After reading the guest book entries I feel the loss of Rabbi Wolf's passing; and a deep sense of disappointment that I did not have the opportunity to know him better.

I was in poor shock. He was an inspiration and support during my one year at KAM. He was wonderful and one could always talk to him. He was a true rabbi and inspirational hero.

Rabbi Wolf was a part of my youth at B'nai Jehosua, he instilled in me a sense of being a Jew. I always remembered him. I met him again many years later and he remembered me. What a special person he was. How fortunate you have been to have shared so much of his life.

Dear Grace, Jonathan and Benji,

Our families' send our heartfelt condolences to you. As all of these entries show, Rabbi Wolf was a very special and great human being who touched so many people.

He was the first person I ever had a serious conversation about God with! That should not surprise anyone! It was over one of the many wonderful Sunday brunches we shared with him at our home in Highland Park, during his Solel years. He was a very dear friend of my mom and dad's. I...

I have some wonderful memories of a Great Man and Rabbi from my time spent in Hyde Park and at KAM. My love, thoughts and sympathy are with his family at this time.

Ina Burd

Rabbi Wolf was a major influence in my life when I was a camper at OSRUI in the 60's. We renewed our acquaintance briefly at a conference in Israel in 1996.
He was always a model, for me, of the integration of religious commitment, intellectual honesty, psychological insight, moral courage and, of course, humor. The world will not be the same for me without his presence.

Rabbi Wolf was one of the most important influences in my life. When I came home from Oconomowoc camp extolling his virtues, I was informed that he had arranged my adoption. Years later, he came to K.A.M. Isaiah Israel and subsequently performed my wedding and both of my parents funerals. His questions made me stretch my mind.