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A Real "Mensch"
A story about Stan Levy, a Rabbi
who I call a friend.
Date: 12/20/2005 9:36:03 PM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 1121 times This is a story that I received today about
Stan Levy, aJewish Renewal Rabbi
wo has meant a lot to me for over a decade.
I generally read my poetry with this community
on the Jewish HIgh Holidays.
The Jewish Renewal Community he founded
has services once a month or more. It welcomes
those of all faiths. One thing I like about Stan
is that he is definitely opinionated, but highly respectful...
He says, "In our tradition," we practice this way.
He is open to all traditions.
I wanted to share this article.
"Mensch" means a "A good Man"
or "A Man who is Good and does Good."
your eg
___
The rabbi
by Matt Miller
16, Dec 2005
Stanley Levy performs a juggling act worthy of Cirque du Soleil. As a partner with the Los Angeles-based firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP, the veteran lawyer specializes in complex finance, litigation and intellectual property matters.
Then, there are Levy’s other accomplishments. Three decades back, he co-founded a free legal services organization that now serves thousands of the L.A. area’s elderly and indigent. Five years ago, he helped found The Academy for Jewish Religion, California seminary. Oh, yes. In his spare time, Levy serves as the spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Horin, which he also began.
“When my friends are playing golf,” Levy quips, “I’m playing rabbi.”
While many in corporate law devote requisite time and money to various causes and charities, few can boast of Levy’s breadth and depth of service. “He’s genuinely unusual. I don’t know how he does it,” says Paul Irving, Manatt’s managing partner. “He’s been a kind of serial entrepreneur of organizations and activities that advance justice and serve the underserved.” Levy responds that he receives more than he gives. “I want my spiritual high,” he says of his advocacy work. “For selfish reasons, that’s the part that enriches me most.”
Levy ascribes his life to a well-honed sense of balance. He has learned how to delegate responsibility. He knows how to say “no.” And he credits Manatt with promoting the notion that lawyers deserve a life as well.
“We want to make sure that all the people working here have a good lifestyle,” he says of his firm, one of L.A.’s largest, “because otherwise burnout is going to come really quick and really early.”
Levy, 64, began his career as an idealistic, public interest lawyer. He successfully shifted to corporate work, but never lost his commitment to social justice.
He is a classic product of the 1960s. After a stint with the Western Center on Law and Poverty, Levy formed Public Counsel, now the LA County Bar’s legal aid organization.
At the same time, Levy was tending his religious flock. He founded B’nai Horin in 1968, even before he was ordained as a rabbi. The synagogue, which translates as Children of Freedom, is part of the Jewish renewal movement.
Balancing legal and religious practices, he discovered an overlooked connection. Among L.A.’s Jewish population, there was a significant percentage of the poor, with a crying need for free legal help. He enlisted 18 friends, made them pledge $5 a month, and opened a storefront office. Bet Tzedek, the House of Justice, was born.
That organization has grown phenomenally. Bet Tzedek is now a $5 million a year operation; its annual fund-raising ball is an L.A. institution. There are 15 full-time attorneys on staff and dozens more volunteer their services.
From the beginning, Levy insured that Bet Tzedek cast a much wider net than just assisting elderly Jews. Over the years, it has successfully tackled everything from slumlord and nursing-home abuse to representing underpaid, immigrant workers and Holocaust survivors.
In the mid-1970s, Levy moved to corporate work. His first specialty was music, helping a friend produce concerts and records. He spent much of the 1980s and early 1990s litigating finance- and bankruptcy-related cases. Most notably, he was a lead counsel in the Penn Square Bank failure, representing unsecured depositors.
For the past decade, Levy has focused on the fashion and apparel business. He spent four years as general counsel at Guess? Inc. He joined Manatt in early 1997.
All the while, Levy kept his religious congregation going. Then, five years ago, Levy met with other Jewish clergy and scholars to kibitz about ways of helping, in his words, “to create a bridge between the orthodox religious world and the secular world among Jews, where everyone could come together regardless of what their personal beliefs were as a common cause.”
What emerged was The Academy of Jewish Religion, California, a seminary that crosses denominational lines and trains rabbis and cantors, especially among those in mid-life who want a career change. “It’s been successful beyond my wildest dreams,” Levy says.
To explain his dedication, Levy tells the story of Muhammad Ali, who, after visiting an old-age home in New York, donated a huge amount of money. “When asked why, he said, ‘Service to others is the rent I pay for my place here on earth,’” Levy recalls. “It really hit me.”
Peggi Sturm, Executive Director
B’NAI HORIN/Children of Freedom
10810 Ayres Ave, Los Angeles CA 90064
Office 310.441.4434, Fax 310.475.0309
PeggiS@mac.com http://www.bnaihorin.com
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