TORONTO — He’s been celebrated for his service to Adath Israel Congregation, which he’s been a part of since 1947. He’s been praised for the books he’s written, one a memoir about surviving the Dachau concentration camp and his achievements in the years following the Holocaust.

But late last month, about 600 Adath Israel congregants, dignitaries, family and friends gathered to celebrate Rabbi Erwin Schild’s 95th birthday as well as his 70 years of marriage to his wife, Laura.

Rabbi Schild, who served as Adath Israel’s spiritual leader from 1947 until 1989 and has been rabbi emeritus since then, told The CJN that the fact so many people made the time to be a part of the event in his honour “illustrates the very close personal relationship I’ve had with the synagogue and the membership.”

“We’ve had a pretty unique relationship from the very beginning,” Rabbi Schild said.

“When I started, it was a small parochial congregation. It was called the Roumainishe Shul. [Officially, it was the First Roumanian Hebrew Congregation Adath Israel.] It was a membership that consisted almost entirely of Jewish immigrants from Romania and perhaps a few people that married into that community… There was a strong bond between myself and a large number of the congregation, and that has characterized and carried over into the celebration that we had.”

Alan Applebaum, a past president of Adath Israel and chair of the event, said this celebration was “literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to share in that longevity of marriage and longevity of age that he could share with his congregational family and members of the greater community with whom he’s had a relationship over the years.”

Rabbi Erwin Schild

Applebaum said the members of his family, who have been with the shul for 50 years, have a very special relationship with Rabbi Schild.

“Rabbi Schild actually officiated at my bar mitzvah… but he also officiated at two of my children’s weddings, and he buried both my parents. He was a very good friend of my parents. In fact, my father’s eulogy is in one of his books,” Applebaum said.

“However, he’s done that with dozens of people, which is why there was such an outpouring of warmth.”

He said among some of tributes at the May 31 event were speeches by Rabbi Schild’s son, his eldest granddaughter, and a niece from Montreal.

Rabbi Schild, a native of Germany who was awarded Germany’s Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit, was also addressed by Walter Stechel, Germany’s consul general in Toronto.

Applebaum said a handmade chupah, donated by the Kepecs family, was presented to the shul in honour of the Schilds’ 70th wedding anniversary last December.

Rabbi Schild said the event itself and the amazing turnout by congregants vindicated a decision he faced early in his career.

“In 1950, I was already a rabbi of the Roumainishe Shul, and I also had a small position at the University of Toronto. In 1950, I had an offer from the university to get a more permanent position, but the condition was that I give up the rabbinate,” he recalled.

“I had to make a decision about whether I wanted to be a rabbi or whether I wanted to be an academic. [At the tribute event], my choice was vindicated, because I felt from the very beginning that I wanted to influence people. I don’t only want to acquire and promote knowledge, but I want to influence people. While you do influence students, it is a very transient population, whereas in a synagogue, you can have a more permanent population, and so if I ever had any doubts about whether I did the right thing, they were alleviated last [month].”

Speaking about the success of his seven-decades-long marriage, he gave all the credit to his wife, Laura.

“She was forbearing, accommodating, unselfish and realized the importance of my work with the congregation. And it relieved me of many domestic obligations that I would have as a husband and father. But I don’t have a prescription for a long marriage. Jocularly, I say, you just have to keep on going. That’s all. Naturally, it’s mazal, it’s luck that my health has endured, and my wife’s health as well, so that we have been able to see [three] children, [12] grandchildren and [45] great-grandchildren. With any bit of luck, we may even have great-great grandchildren,” he said, adding that his oldest great-granddaughter is 17.

Applebaum said that although the celebration was meant to honour Rabbi Schild and his wife, the congregants also benefited.

“Everyone walked away feeling good that they had an opportunity to share in that kind of simchah, which is such an unusual one to share.”