Bill Text: IL SR1724 | 2013-2014 | 98th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Mourns the death of Rabbi Isaac Neuman.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2015-01-13 - Resolution Adopted [SR1724 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2013-SR1724-Introduced.html

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SR1724 LRB098 23498 MST 62675 r
SENATE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois State Senate were
saddened to learn of the passing of Rabbi Isaac Neuman, a
resident of Central Illinois for the past 40 years, on November
17, 2014; and
WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman, who was born in Zdunska Wola,
Poland in 1922, was a survivor of Nazi death camps and slave
labor (Junikowo, St. Martin's, Fuerstenfelde,
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Fuenfteichen, Gross-Rosen, Mauthausen,
Wels and Ebensee); and
WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman lost nearly his entire family
in the Holocaust, including both his parents, 6 sisters, a
younger brother, and a grandmother; his left forearm was
tattooed with his number from Auschwitz: 143945; his Ebensee
camp was liberated by National Guard soldiers of the United
States Army's 80th infantry division in May of 1945; and
WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman was one of the very few people
in America who first received a traditional Jewish education in
some of the most prestigious Talmudic academies in Poland
(Yeshivat Chachmei in Lublin, Eitz Chaim in Kalisch and Emek
Halacha in Warsaw) and was later ordained as a Rabbi by the
Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio; he was awarded a

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Doctor of Divinity Degree by the Hebrew Union College in 1985;
and
WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman bore witness to Nazi atrocities
through lectures, teaching, and appearances at churches, high
schools, colleges, and universities (including Parkland
College and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
throughout Illinois and around the world; and
WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman served as Rabbi of Sinai Temple
in Champaign from 1974 to 1987, and as Rabbi Emeritus
thereafter; and
WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman helped re-establish Jewish
communities in Germany and educated rabbis and educators across
the United States, Europe, and Latin America over a period 60
years; and
WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman served on the board that
created the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.,
(under a presidential appointment by President Ronald Reagan)
and later was part of a delegation representing President
George W. Bush at the dedication of the museum at the Yad
Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem; and
WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman served as Auxiliary Chaplain at

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Chanute Air Force Base from 1974 until its closing; he also
ministered to members of United States Armed Forces in bases
and installations around the world over a period of 40 years;
and
WHEREAS, After retiring from Sinai Temple, Rabbi Isaac
Neuman returned to East Berlin in 1987-88, the first new rabbi
there since the war, and established a congregation within
walking distance of Hitler's bunker; and
WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman was a leader in interfaith
activities, serving as President of the Ministerial
Association of Champaign-Urbana; during his time as a rabbi at
Sinai, he welcomed dozens of different church group as visitors
to Friday night services at Sinai Temple; he also participated,
with interfaith clergy, in the historic civil-rights march in
1965 in Selma, Alabama, with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.;
and
WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman twice delivered the opening
prayer in the United States House of Representatives, in 1970
and later in 1983; and
WHEREAS, Rabbi Isaac Neuman's memoir, "The Narrow Bridge:
Beyond the Holocaust", co-authored with Michael Palencia-Roth
and published by the University of Illinois Press, is an

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important first-hand account of the Nazi's crimes against
humanity; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of
the Rabbi Isaac Neuman, and extend our sincere condolences to
his family, friends, the Champaign-Urbana and University of
Illinois communities, and all who knew and loved him; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
presented to the family of Rabbi Isaac Neuman as an expression
of our deepest sympathy.