TORONTO — Rabbi Joseph Kelman – founding rabbi of Toronto’s Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue and a pioneer in Jewish community inclusion for people with developmental disabilities – died on June 27 of cancer, following a three-week illness. He was 82.

Rabbi Joseph Kelman, 1927-2009

Among the latter were his involvement in prison and hospital chaplaincy, leadership of interfaith missions to Israel, and founding the Ezra and Kadima Schools, the Kadima Centre, the Camp Tikvah Program, the Reena Foundation, Chai Tikvah and the Dr. Abraham Shore She’arim Hebrew Day School.

An estimated 1,000 mourners – friends, relatives, congregants, Reena clients, Jewish and non-Jewish clergy – filled the sanctuary and its balcony at Beth Emeth to honour the rabbi and hear eulogies from his brother, Rabbi Abraham Kelman; daughter Tova Gutenberg; two sons, rabbis Jay and Maury Kelman; grandson Joshua Gutenberg; colleague Rabbi Erwin Schild of Adath Israel Congregation; and CJN editor Mordechai Ben-Dat, representing the larger Jewish community.

Beth Emeth’s Rabbi Howard Morrison, who officiated, referred to Rabbi Kelman as his rabbi, colleague and friend. “And I speak on behalf of thousands.”

The congregation’s rabbi emeritus gave his heart and soul to his shul, colleagues and the entire community, Rabbi Morrison said.

In November 2008, Beth Emeth honoured Rabbi Kelman for 50 years of service with its Yakir Hakahal (Precious to the Community) award.

Nine months earlier, he was honoured by UJA Federation of Greater Toronto for almost five decades of work on behalf of people with special needs.

The rabbi’s efforts began in 1960 after a congregant approached him about a bar mitzvah for his developmentally delayed child. The result was Kadimah, a Jewish school for students with developmental disabilities.

Rabbi Kelman later co-founded Ezra, a program for students with learning disabilities; She’arim, a school for children with learning disabilities; and Reena, an organization that integrates adults with developmental disabilities into the community.

As well, he chaired a North America-wide committee on special education under the auspices of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism for more than 30 years, and was instrumental in having developmentally disabled children accepted into Ramah camps.

Among the rabbi’s other honours was an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University, where the Kelman School for Jewish Education is named for him.

Rabbi Abraham Kelman said that, when his brother saw there was a need, he responded, “because he cared deeply.”

The closing of She’arim last year hurt Rabbi Kelman terribly, his brother said. “He was ready to go on an individual campaign to continue the work.”

It was only at the behest of his family that he reluctantly agreed not to, his brother added.

“He was a gem of a person. In many ways he was a one and only.”

One family member after another attested to Rabbi Kelman’s devotion to them, despite the demands of the rabbinate and the hours he spent on community needs.

He spoke to his siblings and children every day, called his out-of-town grandchildren weekly before Shabbat, and wrote letters to his extended family following simchahs.

As well, Rabbi Jay Kelman said, his father never missed a family dinner, although he often left immediately afterward for a meeting.

Rabbi Maury Kelman spoke of his father’s tremendous energy, idealism and constant desire to learn from everybody.

Rabbi Schild – a native of Germany who was welcomed into the Kelman family’s Markham Street home as a refugee in the 1940s – recalled Rabbi Kelman’s ability to mediate, and his rare combination of passion and a centrist philosophy.

“We often associate passion with the extremes,” noted Rabbi Schild. “I think my friend and colleague exemplified the potential and the power of the middle.

“He could reach out to all members of the community, irrespective of their place on the social or economic or religious spectrum.”

Rabbi Kelman “remained true to the traditional background of his family,” said Rabbi Schild. “He considered himself an Orthodox rabbi, and yet he was able to lead a wonderful Conservative congregation to greatness in the community.”

Rabbi Schild called Rabbi Kelman “a healing influence in the Toronto Board of Rabbis and the rabbinate in general… He embraced us all.”

Rabbi Kelman, one of six children, was a native of Vienna who immigrated at age three. An eighth-generation rabbi, he lost his father, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kelman, at age nine. His mother, Mirl, only 36 at the time, was a national president of Mizrachi and an organizer of a march through Kensington Market to protest against Jewish businesses remaining open on Shabbat.

The future rabbi attended King Edward Public School, Harbord Collegiate and Yeshiva University, following studies with Toronto’s Rabbi Abraham Price.

Rabbi Kelman married his first wife, Ruth, in 1953. She predeceased him in 1999. They lived in Quebec, New York and Massachusetts, where Rabbi Kelman served his first pulpits.

In 1959, they returned to Toronto and the fledgling Beth Emeth congregation. Under Rabbi Kelman’s leadership, the shul grew to more than 1,500 families at the time of his retirement in 1997.

Gutenberg – who had returned from Israel to attend her father’s funeral just 36 hours after celebrating her son’s wedding – said her father “truly left this world having made a difference.

Her youngest brother, Rabbi Maury Kelman, had stayed in Toronto and kept the news of their father’s death from her and their brother, Rabbi Jay Kelman, for 24 hours.

“One of the last conversations my father had was to tell Jay to come to the wedding,” recalled Gutenberg, praising their younger brother’s strength in ensuring that no one learned of their father’s death until after the celebration. “You did what Daddy would have wanted you to do.”

Rabbi Kelman leaves Sara, his wife of eight years; his brother Rabbi Abraham Kelman; his sister Claire Goldstein; his children Tova Gutenberg and rabbis Jay and Maury Kelman; and 10 grandchildren. He was predeceased by his first wife Ruth, and by his siblings Rabbi Wolfe Kelman, Celia Silber and Tobie Silverman.