The ‘Force’ of Rabbi Alan Lew

by Jay Jonah Cash, 2009-01-15

EDITOR'S NOTE: Rabbi Alan Lew, a tireless advocate for the poor, passed away on January 12.

Making even momentary eye contact with Rabbi Alan Lew was always an intense experience.

Whether at a meeting, an event or when sitting with homeless people in Civic Center Plaza on a cold and very stormy night, Rabbi Lew’s attention would absolutely be all yours. His mind and spirit were there, totally present. He didn’t look through you. He looked into you … deeply, with more compassion and interest than most of us ever have, even for ourselves.

The only other time I have ever felt such a presence was during the rather surreal experience of interviewing the Dalai Lama when he visited Ann Arbor nearly two decades ago. It’s no coincidence.

Rabbi Lew was known as the “Zen Rabbi,” thanks to the ten years he practiced as a strict Zen Buddhist before coming to the realization that he was “irredeemably Jewish at the core.” He described the experience vividly.

“For ten years, I woke up at 5 a.m. every morning and meditated for several hours. I did weeklong seshins -- weeks of intensive meditation where we did nothing but sit, except for the three or four hours each night that we slept. Finally, I went to the monastery, where we sat all year, interrupting our sitting only to do a few hours of manual labor each morning and each afternoon.”

He then studied to be a Rabbi and became a true scholar. But it was during those ten years of “emptiness” and meditation where he learned to practice his greatest ability … the ability to “bring a sense of the divine -- of the sacred -- into every moment of this life, every nook and cranny of this world.”

Rabbi Lew focused especially on the nooks and crannies where poor and homeless people dwell. As a staff member at Religious Witness with Homeless People, for years I had the privilege of sitting at the table at monthly Steering Committee meetings with Sister Bernie Galvin and other prominent religious leaders. Rabbi Lew faithfully took time to be present at the meetings for 15 years, from the very beginning of the organization.

With his spiritual comrades he was arrested while being civilly disobedient all over town. He marched, testified at hearings, wielded megaphones and led prayers at countless events. Most recently, he spoke for the Steering Committee against San Francisco’s policy of issuing “Quality of Life” citations to homeless people. He didn’t mince words.

“But above all, this policy of citing and arresting homeless people is a spiritual catastrophe,” he wrote. “We human beings are the bearers of the sacred - each of us carries the image of the Divine with us into this world. The policy is morally wrong, and spiritually disastrous, and like all policies based on delusion and rage, it is futile - a great vanity, a striving after the wind. It has never worked, and it never will.”

Outside of Religious Witness, Rabbi Lew led the largest Conservative congregation in San Francisco for 14 years, hosted a local television program for ten years and wrote several books, including the bestseller “One Hand Clapping: The Spiritual Path of a Zen Rabbi.” And over the years, he taught Jewish meditation to thousands of people of every faith. In fact, Rabbi Lew was doing just that the day he died.

“This morning, after teaching rabbis at a Seminary leader training institute, Rabbi Lew meditated, prayed Shacharit, went for a run, and left this world,” wrote Rabbi Micah Hyman to members of Congregation Beth Sholom, where he took over after Rabbi Lew retired.

Rabbi Lew’s life was an instructive example of how you can be fully aware of the complexity of each moment of life, of how you can be fierce and compassionate at the same time and how you can forcefully be the change you wish to see. But I believe his most memorable lesson is perhaps the most simple. It is the one he taught with his eyes.

"Simple human presence – simply being present, simply persisting in being here – has tremendous spiritual power. It has the power to heal. It has the power to nurture."

This I will never forget.


The Makor Or Center for Jewish Meditation, which was co-founded by Rabbi Lew, will host an hour-long public memorial of prayer and meditation for Rabbi Lew at 4 p.m., Sunday, January 18 at Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. All are welcome.