In anticipation of the 75th Anniversary Celebration on November 15 (RSVP here), Temple member and enthusiastic explorer of archives—any archive— Michael Zmora is sharing a series of small vignettes he has gleaned from Har Zion’s history.
A Har Zion Moment: The Day Eleanor Roosevelt Came to Temple Har Zion
In September 1955, only two years after Gottlieb Hall was finished, West Suburban Temple announced a program series called The Forum, where prominent speakers and world-class musical performers would address and play for the congregation. Conceived by West Suburban Temple’s Rabbi Moshe Babin at the moment he arrived at his pulpit in 1949, the series was co-hosted with the then-newly relocated Oak Park Temple, whose building was still under construction.
February 15, 1956, in Gottlieb Hall
The first Forum speaker series announced included former First Lady and humanitarian Eleanor Roosevelt. The lecture was set for February 15, 1956, in Gottlieb Hall. Roosevelt’s talk, “Is America Facing World Leadership?,” was one she would deliver across the world. While we don’t have the exact text of what she said that day, a copy of her identically titled address from May 1959 delivered at Ball State University survives and can be read here. An audio recording of that address can be found here on YouTube.
By 1956, Mrs. Roosevelt had already served in several important delegations to the United Nations and played an instrumental role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. With her departure from the United Nations in 1953, Roosevelt dedicated her remaining years to speaking engagements and television and radio appearances, largely promoting the work of the U.N. and international relations. She averaged 150 lectures a year throughout the 1950s.
Eleanor Roosevelt and Rabbi Moshe Babin
Mrs. Roosevelt would deliver her remarks to a packed crowd from the stage at Gottlieb Hall. The newly-installed movable Ark was pushed all the way back. After her address, she posed for this photo with Rabbi Babin, and later, per his daughter Dena Babin, she went to the Rabbi’s house for dinner.
The Forum lecture series continued throughout Rabbi Babin’s time as Temple Har Zion’s rabbi, until his departure in 1964. During that time, The Forum hosted such luminaries as opera singer Richard Tucker, actor Vincent Price, Senator (and future Vice President) Hubert Humphrey, and pianist Van Cliburn.
In the years that followed Rabbi Babin’s departure, and until the present day, Har Zion has welcomed celebrated musicians from Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach to Theodore Bikel and distinguished speakers from Chaim Potok to Yossi Klein Halevi. The tradition continues.