Rabbi Albert Friedlander

July 8, 2004
On the night of Nov. 8, 1938, Albert Friedlander, 11 years old, left his home in Nollendorfplatz, a section of Berlin, with his father, and they walked the streets during all the night of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, when Nazis went on the rampage and destroyed Jewish homes and shops and synagogues. Albert and his father did not return home during the night because they were afraid to go back since they were being awaited by the Gestapo.
The Friedlander family left Germany and first went to Cuba. Then they came to the United States and lived in Vicksburg, Miss., where Albert graduated from high school in 1944, the year in which he was the Mississippi state champion in the mile run. After earning an undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago, Albert went to Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and was ordained by this seminary as a rabbi in 1952.
Rabbi Albert Friedlander served as the rabbi of Temple B'nai B'rith of Wilkes-Barre from 1956 to 1961. During this period, the Temple moved from its synagogue on Washington Street in Wilkes-Barre to its present location in Kingston. The members of Temple B'nai B'rith, who came to know him then still regard him with deep affection and admiration.
After earning his Ph.D. at Columbia University in New York City in 1961, Rabbi Friedlander went to England and had a distinguished career. Rabbi Friedlander and his wife, Evelyn, oversaw the placement of the Holocaust Scrolls in congregations that would give them a honored place after their having been desecrated by the Nazis. In 1982, Rabbi Friedlander became the dean of the Leo Baeck College, a rabbinical seminary in London. He was a prolific writer and was sought out as a visiting professor at a number of universities in Europe, Israel and the United States.
In 2001 Queen Elizabeth II bestowed upon Rabbi Friedlander the honor of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of the rabbi's constant fostering of greater understanding among Christians, Muslims and Jews.
A number of scholarly writings by Rabbi Friedlander deal with the Holocaust. He once wrote: "In a world where humans are free to do right and to do wrong there will always be evil actions. If the Holocaust is to teach us anything, it must be the realization that one has to speak out against evil. Even a limited, uncertain, anguished fight against the darkness is better than surrendering to the evils of the past and the present day."
Rabbi Albert Friedlander died of heart failure on July 8, 2004, in London, England. Rabbi Friedlander's name is followed by a long list of academic degrees and titles and honors, but the man's heart was kind and humble. He had a pastor's unconditional love for every member of all the congregations he served.