Cowboys ride off into the sunset, ordinary working folk hop into their RVs and journey to national parks, and hordes of others migrate to Florida to enjoy their retirement.
But what about rabbis? What do they do when they leave the pulpit, when they hand over the reins of their congregation to another?
Well, if you’re Samuel Broude — or one of many other retired rabbis scattered across the Bay Area — apparently, life doesn’t change much when you step down from the bimah.
Broude, 10 years into his “retirement” from Oakland’s Reform Temple Sinai, hasn’t slowed down at all.
A recent Tuesday afternoon found him at his Oakland home, awaiting a phone call so he could comfort a bereaved family. Two weeks earlier, he had performed a wedding; still ahead on his slate was the pending funeral and a baby-naming.
Not to mention a weekly class he teaches, the autobiography that he recently completed — titled “Scenes from a Rabbinic Life” — and a current two-month stint at Congregation B’nai Tikvah in Walnut Creek, where he’s filling in part time while Rabbi Raphael Asher takes a sabbatical.
So much for taking a rest during his golden years.
As Broude, who turns 75 Sunday, joked, “I had three goals for retirement — to write, to travel and to lose weight. Two out of three ain’t bad.”
In seriousness, he added, “On the onehand, I feel relieved that I don’t have the ongoing responsibility for a congregation. On the other hand, I still apparently have a strong need to be a rabbi.
“It’s kind of a strange dichotomy.”
Fellow retired Rabbis Joseph Gitin and Leo Trepp are just as busy, despite the fact that Gitin is 92 and Trepp is 85.
Gitin, who left San Jose Reform Temple Emanu-El in 1976 after spending 26 years there, still presides over lifecycle events and gives High Holy Day sermons. That’s in addition to his many speaking appearances, the writing he regularly submits for publication, and the numerous boards on which he’s served.
“He doesn’t look or behave like one would expect [of someone his age],” said Rosalie Gitin, the rabbi’s wife of 63 years.
Meanwhile, Trepp spends four months each year in Germany teaching Jewish studies at the University of Mainz. He’s also got a couple of books he’s polishing — he’s already published 15 — and he just retired from 40 years serving as chaplain at the Veterans Home of California, located in Yountville.
“This is my Jewish obligation,” said Trepp, who helped start Reform Congregation Beth El in Berkeley, Conservative Congregation Beth Ami in Santa Rosa and Reform Temple Beth El in Eureka, from which he retired in 1992. He also taught at Napa Valley College from 1961 to 1993, and he now lives in San Rafael, having recently moved there from his longtime Napa home.
“I don’t even like to use the word ‘retired’ because I’ve been so busy with lectures and visits and writing.”
Indeed, those rabbis seem to be the rule rather than the exception. When it comes to retirement, they’re more than eager to make use of the extra time reading, studying, teaching and continuing to do service for the Jewish, and the general, community.
In fact, of four Bay Area retired rabbis recently interviewed, only one, 78-year-old Sanford E. Rosen, has actually found it somewhat easy to leave his post.
“Some of my [retired] colleagues feel they have to be on the pulpit all the time. I enjoy being in the congregation with my wife. We spend a lot of Shabbat time with our family in San Francisco.
“How could I say I didn’t like [retirement]?”
Of course, even Rosen, who took just one sabbatical in his 31 years at Reform Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo, has remained Jewishly involved — and busy. Retired since 1982, he spent 1983-84 traveling the world as a chaplain for the Navy. After that, he worked 11 years as a cruise-line chaplain, performing rabbinic duties on one or two cruises each year. The San Mateo resident also taught in the religious studies department for San Jose State University.
These days, he oversees lifecycle events and supplies Jewish information over the Internet for a Web site designed to answer non-Jews’ questions about the religion.
If there’s one retirement activity Rosen and the other three rabbis seem to relish the most, it’s writing.
That is especially true of Trepp, who has written in both German and English. One of his books, “The Complete Book of Jewish Observance,” has been widely used since it was published in America in 1980.
“There is no money in it, but there is a need, as I see it, to teach. I write to pass on the knowledge,” said Trepp, who is heavily involved in interfaith activity in Germany and has earned numerous honors there and in the United States.
One of the German native’s highest honors came when the University of Mainz named him an honorary senator, making him one of only nine people in the last 50 years to earn that distinction.
Generally, when not teaching, he writes from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day — “My wife doesn’t like me to work in the evening; we should have a little time together.”
Rosen, who said he “had writer’s block for years,” now spends much of his time writing of experiences he had while he was a full-time rabbi. Speaking to him, in fact, is like storytime hour, with the rabbi recounting numerous tales from his career.
“I’ve written about half a dozen articles, but whether they’re published or not is not as important as my crafting them and having them for my grandchildren to see,” Rosen said.
Gitin, too, has written, but his teaching now mostly takes the form of talks on Judaism at service clubs and churches. “I’ve spoken to churches so often that they’re a little mixed up to whom to pay the salary,” he joked.
He added, “They should know who the Jewish people are, about our religion. A lot of people are anti-Semitic, so I try to explain how wrong it is, how un-Christian, inhuman.
“I try to strengthen the bonds of good will and understanding.”
Not to be lost in the shuffle of these rabbis’ retirement is the effect it’s had upon their wives.
Said Broude of his wife of 48 years, Judith, “She was a real rabbi’s wife; she also had to retire. She was very involved with the temple and she was very much enjoying it. I was ready to retire but I don’t think she was. That was an adjustment for her, too.”
Gitin’s wife, Rosalie, still makes it a point to involve herself in his affairs. In fact, during a phone interview, she picked up the other line to make sure a reporter knew all about the work Gitin has done during his retirement years.
“I go with him everywhere; all the politicians know me very well,” Rosalie Gitin said. “It’s been a wonderful life for us.”
Her husband, who is obviously deeply enamored with his wife, recounts how he met her while speaking to a youth group at her temple so long ago. “I was speaking on the problems of youth. I took a problem with me that day, and I’ve still got it with me,” he quipped.
Despite their busy schedules, the retirees do enjoy typical leisure activities. Spending time with grandchildren is high on the list, of course, as are traveling and various hobbies .
Trepp, for example, is into model railroads. Unfortunately, however, his recent move meant that he had to disassemble his setup — and his new apartment has no room suitable for setting it up again. “It pains me to talk about,” he said. “I had automatic signals and stop signs, switches and tunnels and railroad stations.
“I’ll keep it with the thought of maybe putting it up again.”
Rosen, meanwhile, reads a lot, as does Broude, who said it’s nice “to have the luxury of reading a few books besides the Torah.”
In all, the rabbis agree, retirement is a blessing.
“The beauty of retirement is that I have choices,” said Broude, who took just one seven-month sabbatical in his 23 years at Temple Sinai. “I can say yes, and I can say no.”
Trepp, who’s been slowed only by spinal surgery that has made it difficult for him to walk, added, “I’ve enjoyed retirement. I like people, I like teaching, I like speaking and I like research.
“I hope God will give me the strength to keep going. The only thing I’m afraid of is [the time] when I can’t do it.”