Speech
Eulogy for Rabbi Steven Dworkin (2003)
The shock has not yet worn off and probably will not for a long time. And yet we already feel the deep sense of personal loss: that the Jewish community has lost a faithful and competent and wonderful servant, and I personally have lost a friend whose loyalty was total, whose friendship and concern were a source of great encouragement for me for many years. To think of Rabbi Steven Dworken, is immediately to have a smile across your lips, in expectation and appreciation of this man of ne’im halichot, pleasantness, warmth, softness, humility, and grace. Whenever he called, I made sure to answer immediately, not necessarily because of the content of the call that I expected, but because Steve Dworken was a man who was so attractive in his personality; so fine, that 1 thought there was a pleasure, simply being with him on the phone. He was a man who was beautiful of face, beautiful of manner, beautiful as a husband, father and grandfather, with a beautiful heart, and a beautiful neshama.He came from Boston. He never lost that charming accent that was so very Bostonian. He grew up in Maimonides Day School under the tutelage and the leadership of the Rav, זצ"ל, was a rabbi in a number of communities - in Stamford Connecticut, in Portland Maine, in Linden New Jersey where he was very attached to his people. And then he became the Assistant Director ofYeshiva's Division of Communal Services; he was in charge of Rabbinic Placement. He loved rabbis. He was a mokir rabbanan. And he dealt with them, not in an official manner only, but he dealt with them personally. And he managed to compromise, or to resolve the paradox of - on the one hand being loyal to the institution ־ and on the other, considering the personal needs of individual rabbanim.And then he became Executive Vice President of Histadrus Harabonim, the Rabbinical Council of America, and he grew and matured into the position of RCA, with great responsibility, and a great sense of that responsibility, for the needs …
