H eadlines
Rabbi Fredric Kazan Dies at 87
OB ITUARY
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
FREDRIC KAZAN, a longtime
Conservative rabbi and educator
who spent his life among
Philadelphia’s Jewish congrega-
tions, died on Jan. 4. He was 87.

Over the course of his
career, Kazan served Jewish
Philadelphians at various
institutions, including
Reconstructionist Rabbinical
College, Congregation Melrose
B’nai Israel, Temple Emanu-
El, the West Oak Lane Jewish
Community Center, Adath
Israel on the Main Line, Beth
Sholom Congregation and
Congregation Kesher Israel.

According to his daughter,
Dr. Liebe Gelman, congregants
at many of those institutions
told her in the days following
her father’s death that they
considered Kazan to be
primarily “their” rabbi.

This, Gelman believes,
was a vivid expression of her
father’s impact, and a status
that was earned through
decades of close attention paid
to his congregants. For years,
Kazan kept index cards with
detailed family histories of his
congregants, so that sermons
he delivered at simchas and
funerals seemed to come from
family members themselves.

That care, along with his
personal magnetism, drew
hundreds into his orbit.

“My father was an extremely
charismatic person,” said Dede
Kazan, one of the rabbi’s five
children. “Whenever you
walked in the room, you felt
Fredric Kazan, center, leads a tour
of Jewish Philadelphia, in 2012.

Jewish Exponent file photo
Fredric Kazan with two of his
grandchildren, in 1995
Courtesy of Liebe Gelman
his presence.”
Kazan was born on Oct.

30, 1933, and his early life
among Jewish institutions and
those frequented by Jewish
Philadelphians presaged his
later, professional involve-
ment. Kazan was born in
South Philadelphia, the neigh-
borhood where he’d help his
uncle with his pushcart at
the market. While still a boy,
the family moved to Forrest
Avenue in the Oak Lane
section of Philadelphia, joining
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H EADLINES
Temple Sinai prior to its move
to the suburbs. He became a
bar mitzvah at the synagogue
and attended Hebrew school at
Gratz College. In the summers,
Kazan went to Camp Ramah.

After graduating from
Central High School, Kazan
attended Temple University
and Hebrew University in
Jerusalem (he’d continue
his studies at Gratz College,
Dropsie College and UCLA).

As he learned Hebrew and
fell further in love with Israel,
Kazan was vexed by pressing
questions, both professional
and philosophical. Should
he become a rabbi or teach
philosophy? How would it
work with his soon-to-be-
wife, Marian Axelrod, if he
was in Israel and she was still
in Philadelphia?
Axelrod, who had known
Kazan since they were
teenagers, answered the latter
My father was an extremely charismatic person. Whenever you
walked in the room, you felt his presence.”
DEDE KAZAN
by traveling to Israel via sea and
air. Th e professional dilemma
was resolved when Kazan
had a meeting with David
Ben-Gurion. The meeting
with one of Israel’s founding
fathers convinced Kazan that
the American rabbinate would
the best way for him to serve
his fellow Jews.

Kazan and Axelrod were
married by Israel’s fi rst chief
rabbi, Isaac Herzog, in 1955,
when Kazan knocked on the
eminent rabbi’s door and asked
him for a little favor.

Prior to their return to
Philadelphia, Kazan and his
family lived in New York
while he attended the Jewish
Th eological Seminary, and East
Paterson, New Jersey, where
he was a student rabbi. He
led Congregation Ner Tamid
in Van Nuys, California,
also serving as an Air Force
chaplain. Back in Philadelphia with
Charities, served as a leader
within the Jewish Federation of
Greater Philadelphia and was a
committed Zionist.

Rabbi Bob Layman, a
longtime friend and colleague
of Kazan’s, remembers Kazan
as a an exuberant, extroverted
presence, never afraid to share
an opinion or an idea, with “an
enormous capacity for work.”
However charismatic he was
with congregants, it was in
conversation with colleagues,
Layman said, where Kazan
“truly let his hair down.”
Kazan was predeceased
by his wife, Marian. He is
survived by his children, Liebe
Gelman, Dede Rachel Kazan,
Adam Kazan, Faith Kazan
and Linda Kazan; his sister,
Bonnie Kanefsky; and fi ve
grandchildren. ●
his family, Kazan took the
pulpit at his fi rst local congre-
gation, Congregation Melrose
B’nai Israel, and never looked
back. He loved Philadelphia
— its history, its Jews and its
football team. He led Jewish-
themed tours of Philadelphia,
and watched Eagles games
with the television on mute
and the radio broadcast of
the game turned up. He was
also a devoted supporter jbernstein@jewishexponent.com;
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