By Danny Teigman
The closest he comes, he says, is navy blue, and that suits him just fine.
Dressed casually in sandals, khaki shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, Platek already looked ready to embark on his life's latest chapter, along with all its accouterments: weekends in the Poconos, tennis, travel and dancing with his wife, Celia.
Anyone who has spent time with Platek knows that for him, the serious study of Judaism does not mean he must appear stolid and imposing in formal attire. In fact, casual dress, he says, helps his younger students connect and feel comfortable with him. He has always believed that the clothes he wears aren't nearly as important as what he says and does.
An early benefactor of that attitude was Bruce Greenfield, now the executive director of the New York metropolitan region United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, who has called Platek a friend for 46 years, ever since he was a camper at Camp Ramah in Nyack, N.Y., and Platek was his group's head counselor. "Camp Ramah changed my life as a young Jew growing up, and Rabbi Platek was the most influential part of that change," Greenfield said. "More than being a head counselor, he was a teacher and a rabbi to us as campers."
"Rabbi Platek was among those who modeled a commitment to inspired Jewish living and learning and a care about each human being that was an abiding gift," added John Ruskay, executive vice president and CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, who was also a camper in Platek's group.
Behind his desk are stacked 1,000 or so books in a floor-to-ceiling bookcase, just a fraction of his 25,000-volume personal library - a testament to Platek's teaching spirit and desire for knowledge. Topics range from history and philosophy to Jewish study and even what he describes as "junk." One book, "The Anatomy of Bibliomania" - about obsessive book collection - is, not surprisingly, one of his favorites. Right next to it sits another volume on his passion and hobby, "The Book Hunter," published in 1884.
Despite a lifetime dedicated to the pursuit of Jewish study, Platek, who was born in Brooklyn in 1934, said that he did not come from an exceptionally religious family and is uncertain what sparked his drive to study Jewish teachings and become a rabbi. His father, Benjamin, was a dealer of used office equipment, could not read Hebrew and never had a bar mitzvah. Alys, his mother, did not work outside their home, but was active in Jewish cultural life. His grandfather was a composer for Yiddish theater in Manhattan.
At age 7, without any prodding from his parents, Platek walked into the Flatbush Jewish Center and did what few children did then - or now. "I walked in and told them I wanted to go to Hebrew school," he recalled.
By 16, Platek was a student at Brooklyn's secular James Madison High School by day and attended Marshaliah Hebrew High School at night. Out of respect for his newfound faith, his parents began keeping a kosher home, abiding by Jewish dietary and culinary laws.
In 1960 he earned a degree in philosophy from Brooklyn College and was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan. "I just felt totally immersed in my Jewishness, and [wanted to] bring it to the best level of knowledge," Platek said.
After teaching at the seminary for eight years, he sought his first pulpit at Bayswater Jewish Center in Far Rockaway, describing himself as a "middle-of-the-line conservative rabbi." In 1971, Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Centre became his permanent home, where, he said, he is most proud of establishing the temple's Bible and Talmud classes. He said he has also enjoyed working in the temple of 600 congregants where, even after 31 years, he still knows almost all of the families.
"We've been very fulfilled here," Platek said. "... I could think of nothing better in my life than to transmit God's word and tradition to help people."
"I'm not leaving the rabbinate," he added, in the interest of reassuring his friends and congregants. "I'm just leaving the pulpit."
Comments about this story? DTeigman@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000. ext. 246.
