Rabbi Rosenthal Dies From Cancer

TACOMA - Rabbi Richard Rosenthal, who for 41 years played a central role in the Jewish community here, died of cancer

yesterday with his wife and daughter by his side at the Franke Tobey Jones care center.

From bar mitzvahs to funerals, Rabbi Rosenthal was with the members of his temple through good times and bad.

"He was a wise, wise man," said his successor, Rabbi Mark Glickman.

Friends say one of his greatest achievements was getting two strong-minded Jewish congregations to merge to form the Temple Beth El - the group he would lead for the next four decades.

By the time of his retirement in 1997, he had served the same congregation longer than any other active rabbi in Washington, Oregon, Idaho or Montana.

Rabbi Rosenthal served on many boards, including those for the Tacoma Urban League and MultiCare Health System. He taught religion courses at the University of Puget Sound and wrote a monthly column for The News Tribune.

He was born April 14, 1929, in Germany. When he was 9, he witnessed the Nazis' first widespread violence against Jews during Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, on Nov. 9, 1938.

"I felt I was different because I was a person who was able to survive," he said in a 1988 interview.

His father, Carl Rosenthal, was so badly beaten that his son didn't recognize him. His father recovered, and the family emigrated to New York the next year, then to Louisiana, where Rabbi Rosenthal worked to earn his tuition to rabbinical school.

After earning his rabbinical degrees, he began as a chaplain in the Army in Missouri. He left the Army a year later to take the job in Tacoma.

He is survived by his wife and their three children.