Prominent rabbi, friend of Obama, dies at 84

Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf was a dedicated Reform Jew. He led the state’s oldest synagogue, KAM Isaiah Israel, for two decades and wrote books and hundreds of articles about Judaism and theological issues.

He was also extremely active against social injustice. He fought for civil rights, marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., criticized Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and supported his neighbor, now President-elect Barack Obama, in his earliest political campaigns.

Rabbi Wolf’s family members said he saw his religious devotion and his political activism as one in the same.

“He stood up against unjust wars and for the vulnerable and powerless his whole life,’’ said his son, Jonathan Wolf. “He also was very religious. ... He was able to bring together the Jewish tradition and the best of American political traditions.’’

Rabbi Wolf, 84, died at the University of Chicago Medical Center Tuesday after suffering a heart attack outside his Hyde Park home.

Rabbi Wolf was born in Chicago and grew up in Lake View. His mother was a social worker, his father a tailor.

At age 10, he became a radio actor, doing national broadcasts from Chicago on the Mutual Radio Network and even meeting Orson Welles.

As a boy, he studied theology intensively under his uncle, Reform Rabbi Felix Levy.

He graduated from Lake View High School in 1940, and studied at the U. of C. He later got a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at the University of Cincinnati. He was ordained as a rabbi in 1948 by the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati.

He returned to Chicago and became an assistant rabbi at Temple Emanuel for two years before joining the Navy during the Korean war and serving as a chaplain in the Far East.

In 1957 he founded the experimental Congregation Solel in Highland Park, which his family said was a “pioneering Reform synagogue which combined religious traditionalism with political activism.’’ King and members of the Chicago Seven all spoke at the temple during the 1960s. Rabbi Wolf traveled to Alabama to march in Selma with King; he later brought temple members to Washington D.C. to lobby against the Vietnam War. His activism got notice: In 1967, FBI agents attended and recorded one of his anti-war sermons, family members said.

From 1972 to 1980, Rabbi Wolf directed Hillel at Yale and taught philosophy there. In 1975 he was the first official Jewish representative ever invited to the World Council of Churches world assembly in Nairobi, Kenya. He was also national chair of Breira, a group which promoted peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

He took over at KAM in 1980, and was there for its 150th anniversary celebration in 1997.

Congregation president Larry Bloom said the temple thrived under Rabbi Wolf’s leadership.

“He stimulated tremendous thought and participation,’’ Bloom said. “He was a role model for modern Jewish adults.’’

The synagogue is across the street from Obama’s home.

Throughout his career, his son said, “he was no stranger to controversy.’’

He received a Brotherhood Award for his civil rights work from the National Council of Christians and Jews in 1962. However, when the same group later gave a humanitarian award to then President Ronald Reagan, Rabbi Wolf returned his award, saying, “If Ronald Reagan is a humanitarian, then I’m not.’’

In an interview with the Sun-Times last year, Rabbi Wolf said his efforts to push for separate Palestinian and Jewish states, at least in the 1970s, was “oh boy, controversial. The whole Jewish establishment came down on us.’’

After Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Rabbi Wolf told the New York Times, “All of us have bloody hands. ... We Jews are not innocent.’’

“He is someone who believes strongly in peace,’’ said his son. “He is a passionate Zionist, but he believes Israel needs to find a way to accommodate the desire for liberty for the Palestinians.’’

Rabbi Wolf married Grace, his third wife, in 1987. Last year, he had a bar mitzvah — at 83. He called it his “last hurrah.’’ He said most Reform Jews didn’t go through the Jewish rite of passage when he turned 13 in 1937.

Rabbi Wolf’s five books include Challenge to Confirmands: An Introduction to Jewish Thinking and Unfinished Rabbi.

Rabbi Wolf was a huge White Sox fan and he once threw out the first pitch at a game.

In addition to his wife and son, he is survived by another son, Benjamin; four stepdaughters, Sara Berger, Sarah-Anne Schuman, and Dara and Justine Henning; and ten grandchildren.

A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, 1100 E. Hyde Park. The internment will follow at noon at Mt. Mayriv Cemetary, 3600 Narragansett.