Bernard Siegel was a founder of Stanford University’s anthropology department. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that he made his spiritual home at the university as well — at Stanford Hillel.
“We felt that religiously and spiritually, Hillel was where we wanted to attach ourselves,” said Charlotte Siegel, who served on the Hillel board and was married to the anthropology professor for 61 years.
Bernard Siegel died on Aug. 19 in Stanford. He was 85.
Born to immigrant parents in Superior, Wis., Siegel showed an early proficiency for languages and piano. He graduated from Harvard University and got his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
Siegel was fluent in Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, French, German and Hebrew, as well as the language of the ancient Sumerians. During World War II, this got him a special assignment doing research and Portuguese translations at Yale University from 1942 to 1944.
He taught at Brooklyn College and the University of Wyoming at Laramie before being asked to interview at Stanford in 1947. That brought the Siegels to the Bay Area.
At the time, there was no congregation in the Palo Alto-Los Altos area, said Charlotte Siegel, and a group got together to talk about founding a temple. Congregation Beth Am was the result, and the Siegels were among the Reform temple’s first members.
After their children left home, the couple became more involved in Hillel. Siegel had grown up Orthodox, and though he did not remain so, he preferred a service that was mostly in Hebrew.
“When we went to services here on campus, he preferred to be in the Conservative service because he was so strongly accustomed to the Hebrew, and he felt most comfortable and at home there,” said his wife.
In 1981, the Siegels took a group of Stanford students to Israel, where they did an exchange with the University of Haifa. At that time, “the whole world of Israel opened up for us,” said his wife.
He remained in the anthropology department at Stanford for 41 years and continued to research and write once he was emeritus. He specialized in cultures of Brazil, Portugal, Italy, Japan and Picuris pueblo of New Mexico.
Siegel and his wife were supporters of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, and active with the New Israel Fund.
In addition to his wife, Siegel is survived by daughter Eve of Berkeley and son Paul of Mountain View.
A service was held Aug. 22 in Los Altos.
Donations can be made to the Pathways Hospice Foundation, 201 San Antonio Circle, No. 104, Mountain View, CA 94040.