Thursday, November 3, 2011
by dan pine, staff writer
Jweekly.com
Rabbi Avi Levine always wanted to live in Jerusalem. He loved Israel, especially Yerushalayim, and longed to make it his home.
Many happy decades as a pulpit rabbi in the United States delayed that move, and a protracted battle with cancer denied it. Levine, the longtime senior rabbi at Congregation Beth El in Berkeley, succumbed to the disease on Oct. 26, in his home of Palm Desert. He was 70.
In honor of his lifelong dream, his family flew his body to Israel and had him interred in a Jerusalem cemetery on Nov. 1.
Photo: Rabbi Avi Levine
Levine came to Beth El in 1976 and stayed for more than 18 years. During his tenure, membership at the Berkeley Reform synagogue more than doubled. He helped found the nursery school, strengthened the religious school and instituted religious services for the hearing impaired.
But longtime congregants remember him most for being a real mensch.
