By Will Jason
Marin Independent Journal
Posted: 02/11/2011 04:43:24 PM PST
A memorial service will be held Sunday for Rabbi Jerry Winston, a spiritual leader known for conducting interfaith marriages at a time when many mainstream Marin rabbis refused to do so.
Rabbi Winston died Dec. 19 in San Rafael of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 74.
The founder of the defunct congregation, “Barah, The Creative Center for American Judaism,” he is credited with reaching out to hundreds of Marin worshipers seeking an alternative to traditional synagogues.
“He helped create a community of people who just felt disconnected from Judaism,” said Janet Lipsey, a former member.
Rabbi Jerry Winston, seen in this March 27, 1996 IJ file photo, died Dec. 19 in San Rafael from complications of Parkinsons disease. He was 74. (IJ photo/ Marian Little) Marian Little
Rabbi Winston was born on Sept. 9, 1936 in Brooklyn, N.Y. He moved west and attended Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles and later served as a rabbi for deaf congregations in Los Angeles and New York.
He moved to San Francisco in 1973 to serve as program director for the San Francisco Jewish Community Center. In 1975, he founded Barah with the stated mission of being a service organization for “the deaf, the blind, the poor and the unaffiliated” throughout the Bay Area.
After the state-sponsored schools for the deaf and blind moved from Berkeley to Fremont, Rabbi Winston’s group focused on serving the unaffiliated. Barah began meeting in a chapel at the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo.
Larry Becker, 74, of Greenbrae, was an early Barah member and leader. Disenchanted with the orthodox tradition in which he was raised, he credits Winston with restoring his interest in Judaism.
“His sermons were about what was relevant to your life and the times you were living in and the current political and social situation,” he said. “That was so completely different from the Judaism that I was brought up with.”
In 1988, Rabbi Winston officiated the wedding of Sarah Evers Hoffman, who was raised Episcopalian and married a Jew.
“At the time, no synagogue in the area would marry us,” Hoffman said. “In my mind, Rabbi Winston encompasses what a rabbi should be
