Finally met Rabbi Funnye

and in the South Loop yet!

06/06/2010 5:02 PM

By Bonnie McGrath

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I've always been intrigued by the fact that Michelle Obama's first cousin once removed is a rabbi. Rabbi Capers Funnye, Jr. grew up Methodist but converted to Judaism. And when he was 33, he became a rabbi. He is in charge of a congregation on the southwest side.


He visited Spertus today (where he got his undergrad and graduate degrees; he became a clergyman at a small yeshiva in New York) and I walked over to Michigan and Harrison with my daughter Molly and we heard him speak about his aspirations for the Jewish community worldwide (more diversity) and I got to talk to him afterward. I was quite impressed--he's polite and soft-spoken but no pushover. He is a committed Jew--but he understands that American Jews are suspicious of his being Jewish. He has a number of prestigious appointments in the Jewish world--and of course, a connection to the White House.

He searched for his spiritual roots and found them in a Jewish diaspora that went south from the Holy Land (instead of north) and then west. He said he likes gefilte fish, lox and bagels and borscht--but doesn't push those foods on his mostly African-American congregation; instead, he offers long services--and lots of music interspersed with the Jewish rituals.


2 Comments - Add Your Comment



By Fluffy de Crossharbour from Winnetka
Posted: 06/12/2010 6:17 AM

this southwest side synagogue would have been largely forgotten had it not been for Rabbi Funnye. It\'s about a block north of spacious, clean, and once safe Marquette Park. There was a local Jewish community until about 1965--florists, doctors, salesmen, cab drivers, aunts of South Loop bloggers, etc. Saul Bellow acknowledges this in Humboldt\'s Gift.


By Judy Marcus from Palatine
Posted: 06/07/2010 3:00 PM

It would be interesting to go to the religious services he leads.