Rabbi Jules Harlow, 92, deceased; Helped redefine Conservative Jewish prayer
Rabbi Jules Harlow, a liturgist who brought a poet's sensitivity and a musician's cadence to the style of prayer in Conservative Judaism for much of the second half of the 20th century, died on February 12. He was 92.
His wife, Navah Harlow, said the cause was aspiration pneumonia. She did not say where he died.
For a time, Rabbi Harlow's major works—prayer books for daily, Sabbath, festival, and high holy day use—became the standard for worship in Conservative synagogues in North America. According to the Rabbinical Assembly, which published them, several of his books sold more than 100,000 copies.
Conservative Judaism, which occupies a middle ground between the more liberal Reforms and the more traditional Orthodox, was the largest movement in American Jewry until the Reforms surpassed it in the 1990s.
Although Hebrew is the language of Jewish prayer, Rabbi Harlow strove to make the prayer book accessible to those who did not speak the language. He did this through elegant, if not always literal, translations into English that often reflected the rhyme and meter of the original texts.
At a funeral service for Rabbi Harlow in Manhattan on February 14, Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, chancellor emeritus of the Jewish Theological Seminarycalled him 'the permanent poet of the conservative movement'.
The Jewish liturgy, Rabbi Schorsch noted, is often “burdened with an excess of words.” Rabbi Harlow wrote and translated prayers and deleted more than a few.
“He taught us that words less well spoken go further than many words that we no longer understand,” Rabbi Scorsch said. “He taught us that less is more.”
Many of Rabbi Harlow's liturgical innovations were contained in “Siddur Sim Shalom,” a daily and Sabbath prayer book published in 1985.
When “Sim Shalom” was published, Rabbi Wolfe Kelman, then vice president of the rabbinical organization, said it was the first prayer book to “record the founding of the State of Israel as a theological reality and the Holocaust as a moral tragedy.” ”
In an interview with the weekly Long Island Jewish World in 1986, Rabbi Kelman said: “What Jules has achieved is not only to produce a book of liturgical beauty and a beauty of design and translation, but to produce a book that traces the evolution of Conservative Jewish Theology.”
The book also contained several original poems by Rabbi Harlow, including “Changing Light,” which was offered as an alternative to portions of the evening service known as ma'ariv:
Beautiful skies, sunset, sunrise
The grandeur of creation takes our lives to a higher level
Evening darkness, dawn
Renew our lives as You always renew.
The complete poem was even set to music by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. The piece had its world premiere in Helsinki in 2002, on the first anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the American premiere at Carnegie Hall in 2003.
On a smaller scale, one of Rabbi Harlow's liturgical innovations included the single Hebrew letter “vav.” He added the letter – which in this context meant “and” – to one of the blessings said over Chanukah candles. The original prayer thanks God “who performed miracles for our ancestors in ancient days, in our time,” usually understood as a reference to the time of year. With his addition it reads 'in ancient days and in our time'.
In a 2020 Hanukkah message, Shuly Rubin Schwartz, the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, embraced the change as a way to recognize life's daily miracles, even though most prayer books do not include the additional letter.
Rabbi Harlow worked on “Sim Shalom” for eleven years, studying the history of Jewish liturgy going back to the Middle Ages. He published the book in 1985, the same year the seminary ordained women to the rabbinate for the first time.
However, it was not a feminist text; Rabbi Harlow was a traditionalist. In his book, God is still called 'King'. More inclusive and gender-neutral language appeared in later editions of 'Sim Shalom' and in the subsequent conservative prayer book 'Lev Shalem'.
Jules Edwin Harlow was born in Sioux City, Iowa, on June 28, 1931, to Henry and Lena (Lipman) Harlow, who owned a small grocery store together. One of his biggest influences was a high school teacher, Vera Banks, who encouraged him to develop his writing talents. “You could be a great writer,” he remembered her telling him. He was also influenced by his grandfather Sam Lipman. who took him every Saturday as a child to study the Talmud.
After graduating from Morningside College (now Morningside University) in Sioux City, he enrolled in the rabbinical school of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, where he wrote long letters to his grandfather detailing his studies, until to the page of the Talmud he had written. was reviewing.
One day he received a call that his grandfather had died and he rushed home to Sioux City. When he arrived, he found a Talmud in his grandfather's house, opened to the same page he had written about in his most recent letter. Only then did he learn that even though they were hundreds of miles apart, his grandfather was still studying the Talmud alongside him.
Once ordained in 1959, Rabbi Harlow took a job with the Rabbinical Assembly, the association of Conservative rabbis; he remained there until his retirement as director of publications in 1994. During his 35-year career, he left his mark on several of the movement's books and journals. One of them, the “Mahzor for Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur” (1972), a special prayer book for the High Holy Days, became commonly known as the Harlow Mahzor.
In addition to his wife, Rabbit Harlow is survived by his son David; his daughter, Ilana Harlow; and five grandchildren.
After his retirement, Rabbi Harlow and his wife became involved in international Jewish causes. They championed the cause of the Sephardic Bnei Anusim, the descendants of Jews who had to convert to Catholicism in Spain and Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Harlows prepared more than a dozen community members for conversion to Judaism and accompanied them to the conversion ceremony in London with the European Masorti Bet Din, which is affiliated with the Conservative movement. They also spent time in Sweden, where Rabbi Harlow was rabbi of the Great Synagogue in Stockholm for two years.
Rabbi Harlow was also a student of the clarinet. He picked up the instrument in high school and played in bands in high school and college. He took his clarinet with him to rabbinical school, and friends at his funeral remembered him attending sessions at the nearby West End Bar. He also led classmates on trips to jazz clubs in Manhattan.
When houses of worship were closed during the pandemic, Rabbi Harlow spent hours playing his clarinet, his wife said. She remembered him often playing a Duke Ellington standard, “Solitude.” On a Friday afternoon he recorded the song on the clarinet and then spoke the lyrics:
In my loneliness
I pray
Dear Sir above
Send my love back.
He sended the video file to the friends in his synagogue, or minyan. In his rendition, he changed the last lines to “Dear Lord above / Send my minyan back to me.”