The Rosenzweig-Apelbaum Annual Ethics Lecture

The Rosenzweig-Apelbaum Annual Ethics Lecture invites the Or Shalom community to explore ethical and moral questions through a Jewish lens. Each year, we welcome a distinguished speaker whose work reflects our shared commitment to justice, responsibility, and spiritual depth. This series serves as a space for deep thinking, heartful questioning, and conversation rooted in Jewish values.

The Rosenzweig-Apelbaum Annual Ethics Lecture was established through the generosity of Or Shalom member Stephen Gerard, who endowed the series in honor of his beloved parents, Gehrard "Gerd" Rosenzweig (later Jerry Gerard) and Paulette Apelbaum.

To mark the inaugural lecture, Stephen shared a series of reflections about his parents and the moral legacy they left behind.

About the Rosenzweigs

My father, né Gerhard (Gerd) Rosenzweig, was born in Germany, and lived up until age 13 in Brandenburg. His father, Josef, was the town rabbi. Together with his mother, Gertrude, and his older sister, Hannelore, they lived a typical Jewish religious life, up until Kristallnacht in November 1938, when their synagogue, immediately adjacent to their home, was destroyed.

My grandmother Gertrude realized then that the family needed to disperse for safety. Soon after his Bar Mitzvah, Gerd was sent to a children’s home in Berlin, and his sister went by Kindertransport to safety in England. Gerd ultimately ended up in an orphanage in France from 1940 to 1942. After a roundup by the Vichy police, Gerd, at age 16, was sent to concentration camps, which he survived for 2½ years until being liberated at the end of the war. He recuperated in Paris, where he was reunited with his mother and sister. His father, Josef, had been captured during the war and was sent to Auschwitz, where he died.

Gerd changed his name to Jerry Gerard and moved to the Bay Area in 1946.

About the Apelbaums

My mother, née Paulette Apelbaum, grew up in Brussels, Belgium with her mother, Tauba, her father, Kalma, and her younger sister, Hilda. Kalma died in his 30’s from complications of diabetes only weeks after Hilda was born. Tauba ran a successful Jewish delicatessen in Belgium, living upstairs from the restaurant. Tauba escaped the Nazi takeover in the nick of time, fleeing to the Bay Area with her two daughters in 1940.

I was blessed to receive generous bequests from both of my parents after they died, and further blessed with not needing those gifts for myself. I therefore chose to endow an Or Shalom Building Fund in 2015-16. With further growth from investment, that Fund was ultimately able to provide a large portion of the down payment for our Cortland Avenue property.

Jerry & Paulette

Jerry and Paulette met in San Francisco in the late 1940s shortly after they arrived. After marrying in 1949, they moved to Los Angeles, where they raised my older brother, Robert, and me. Paulette was a first and second grade school teacher for ~30 years, followed by teaching English as a second language to adults for another 10 years. Jerry became a successful businessman in the line of department store fixtures and window display merchandise, which provided for a comfortable upper middle class lifestyle for our family.

There was a strong Jewish identity in our family, but without any meaningful connection to an organized Jewish community. 

I was told that the reason for that was that my father could not comfortably accept hearing another rabbi chanting the Hebrew prayers, given his memories from childhood of his own father doing so. Nonetheless, we did sufficiently connect with temples for my brother and me to become B' Mitzvahs. We celebrated most of the important Jewish holidays with Tauba, my grandmother, who hosted the annual Pesach Seder led by my father, which was our most meaningful Jewish family observance.

Despite the relative dearth of organized religious involvement, my parents nonetheless instilled in me the importance of respect and ethical conduct towards others.

In my opinion, standards of ethical conduct are some of the most important characteristics of successful civilized human beings around the world. Once our ancestors organized into civilized societies, it became important to have standards of conduct regarding how people should treat and respect each other. Such standards of "right and wrong," including the 10 commandments, call heavily upon the discipline of ethics.

Throughout my adult life, I have been guided by a strong moral compass. It's my impression that most mainstream religions encourage standards of ethical behavior. Conversely, I perceive a trend of decreased attention to ethics in our society today, affecting our leaders, businesses, and overall attitudes as to what is "fair" and reasonable. Providing an annual ethics lecture to our Or Shalom Community and the greater San Francisco Jewish Community at large is one small step that I can take to address the need for greater attention to the importance of ethical behavior.

The Gerards

My wife, Trudy, was a member of a Unitarian religious community since before we met in 1974. In contrast, I never developed a meaningful rapport with any organized Jewish Community until our family joined Or Shalom in 2001. That was when our two children, then ages 10 and 12, expressed an interest in learning more about the Jewish half of their heritage. We were pointed to Or Shalom by another mixed-faith family that also had a prior relationship with the SF Unitarian Church. Our children both engaged with the religious school and continued through their B' Mitzvahs with Or Shalom. I then developed a meaningful and long-lasting close relationship with the Or Shalom community.

I joined the finance committee in my first year of membership, and have continued serving on it until today. I also served for five years on the Board during Ed Reiner’s presidency. That was in between Or Shalom’s rabbinic leadership with founding Rabbi Pam Baugh and Rabbi Katie Mitzrahi. I also bonded with the music Ensemble playing cello, beginning with the early part of former music director David Cohen-Tzedek's tenure, a commitment that has endured since then. I have also served on the membership, rabbi recruitment, and facilities committees over my 22+ year history of membership.

The consistent ethical theme of many drashes during services and other adult education by our rabbis has been one of the most valuable forms of enlightenment with which I have been blessed during my affiliation with Or Shalom. The strong sense of community with so many fellow Or Shalom members who share common values further instills in me the appreciation of ethical conduct towards others. The practice and encouragement of social justice and outreach by Or Shalom to help disadvantaged families is one of a number of Tikun Olam examples that reveals our Community’s conscience and concern for the welfare of others.