Jewish council's leader steps down

For more than 30 years, Alan Respler of the Jewish Community Relations Council has been South Jersey's go-to guy to tackle bias and religious conflict.

"Alan has been a powerful voice for diversity," said Jim Peeler of Cherry Hill, president of the state Human Relations Commission, who has worked with Respler for 20 years. "He was always with me. He had my back."

Respler, 65, of Cherry Hill, retired May 1, stepping into a consultant's role until a replacement is found. He will be honored Tuesday at the organization's annual meeting.

While community leaders agree that he laid a strong foundation in interfaith understanding that is likely to continue, they also said Respler would be difficult to replace.

"Sometimes, but not often, a person becomes synonymous with their organization," said Joel Kaber, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey. "He was the embodiment of the Jewish community's fight against bigotry."

Respler's work entailed protest, mediation, education, literacy, and travel - all with the goal of furthering mutual understanding.

"If you look at America, whatever you are, you're a minority somewhere, somehow," Respler said this week. "So we have to learn how to live with other people."

He said he is proud that 20,000 students have visited the Goodwin Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Cherry Hill, which he and his wife, Ruth, helped establish in 1998. He talks with excitement about the organization's latest project, BookMates, in which volunteers read monthly to children in Camden.

"Alan is a tireless worker for the cause of social justice," said Respler's rabbi, Aaron Krupnick of Congregation Beth El in Voorhees. "He reaches out across lines that others would find intimidating."

One hot spot was the 2003 community resistance to the construction of a mosque in Voorhees. Anonymous fliers warned residents that the mosque could attract worshippers with links to terrorists.

"It was a very easy call for Jews and Catholics to enter into championing rights of a religious minority," said the Rev. Joseph Wallace, pastor of Christ the King Roman Catholic Church in Haddonfield. "We went through the same thing" in history.

Wallace and Respler brought Catholic and Jewish supporters into a multifaith group defending the mosque, which opened in 2006. They are included in a PBS documentary about the conflict, Talking Through Walls.

The mosque recently expanded its parking lot without opposition, Respler said. "It was a tribute to Voorhees. Local government and citizens found ways to get along."

Showing further progress, he said, Cherry Hill approved a mosque in 2007 with little debate. It is about 60 percent finished on Perina Boulevard.

"Alan has facilitated the coming together of three diverse faith communities," said Quresh Dahodwala of Cherry Hill's Muslim community. "We still have differences of opinion, but we have the ability to communicate and trust each other."

In 1992, Respler helped form a human-relations committee in Cherry Hill after a spate of racist and anti-Semitic graffiti in the community. During the unrest, he turned away a rally by members of the Jewish Defense League of Philadelphia, insisting that the community could resolve its own issues.

He organized 40 busloads of South Jersey residents in 1987 to travel to Washington to protest the plight of Soviet Jews on the eve of a summit between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Over the years, Respler has guided multiple interfaith trips to Israel to help Jews and Christians learn about each other's traditions. A day's travel might include sites such as Yad Vashem, a memorial to Holocaust victims, and the Garden Tomb, believed to be Jesus' burial place.

"We find there's much more that unites us than divides us," said Wallace, who traveled with Respler's 2000 group.

About 10 years ago, Wallace and Respler established an Institute for Understanding, which teaches eight interfaith classes a year on topics such as church calendars, Abraham, or end-of-life perspectives.

And just after Sept. 11, 2001, the two faiths signed a formal agreement of understanding - billed at the time as the second of its kind in the United States - to "commit ourselves to appropriate cooperation in combating all forms of anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, racism, and religious intolerance, and in promoting mutual understanding."

Respler also worked closely with evangelical Christians through Friends of Israel in Bellmawr.

He is retiring to spend more time with his wife, four children, and six grandchildren - some of whom live out of state.

Raising a large family wasn't easy on a salary from a nonprofit, he said, so for more than 20 years he ran a video business on the side, documenting weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other special events. As teens, his children worked with him, but Respler said he still missed a lot of family time.

Respler's community activism arose from his religion's struggle to maintain its identity and culture in a predominantly Christian nation, he said. He rejects the melting pot metaphor, preferring to think of America as a salad bowl.

"We're all different ingredients. We want to maintain our distinct flavors but still be part of the large salad that's America," he said.