Howard County's Revered Rabbi Martin Siegel Dies at Age 90

You could easily say that Rabbi Martin Siegel was one of a kind, a man who looked at life and spirituality with a unique and honest perspective. Although ordained by the Reform movement, Rabbi Siegel played a major role in bringing the Chabad movement to Howard County because he strongly felt the community was in need of an Orthodox presence.

And before serving as spiritual leader of Columbia Jewish Congregation for a quarter-century, he was the author of “Amen: The Diary of Rabbi Martin Siegel” (World Publishing), a controversial pulpit memoir about the state of contemporary Judaism and congregational life.

An Ellicott City resident, Rabbi Siegel, who was CJC’s rabbi emeritus since 1997, passed away on Thursday, Feb. 22. He was 90.

“Martin was a person of extraordinary intelligence and spiritual wisdom,” wrote Rabbi P. Michael Meyerson on the website of Sol Levinson & Bros. “He spent a lifetime increasing his own knowledge and spirituality, and then helping countless people expand theirs as well. He changed so many people’s lives, including mine. This world is much better because of Martin.”

Noted Marc Roffman: “For more than 50 years, Martin was my teacher, my friend, one who exemplified the best qualities of what it means to be a caring thoughtful kind person. A Torah scholar who conducted his life in an exemplary fashion, generously sharing his remarkable insights and knowledge that uplifted people and genuinely served as a positive spiritual influence as he touched so many he came in contact with. … I’m a better person and the world is a better place for the light he brought to all of us.”

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Rabbi Siegel earned his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and was ordained at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. Between 1960 and 1962, Rabbi Siegel served as a U.S. Navy chaplain at Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina. During those years, he met and married Judith Tobias Siegel, and the couple had two daughters.

After leaving the Navy, Rabbi Siegel served as spiritual leader of the Woodsdale Temple in Wheeling, West Virginia, and then Temple Sinai in Lawrence, New York, from 1967-1971. But at the latter synagogue, the rabbi became deeply disillusioned with his congregation, which he wrote about in the bestselling “Amen.”

“A rabbi is an abstraction, and now, more than ever, I am beginning to feel the awful weight of this abstraction,” Rabbi Siegel wrote in “Amen.” “People tend to make me a symbol. They say they know me, but they don’t. They know only my roles. To some of them, I am a radical. To some of them, I am the signature on the marriage contract. To some of them, I am the man who opposes the indulgences of the psychotic fear of anti-Semitism. People see me only as they care or need to see me. … I am dynamic. I am aggressive. I am prophetic. I am concerned. I am lonely. I want to be what I am, not a symbol of what I am.”

Due to the controversial nature of the book, the rabbi was asked in 1971 by the congregation to leave his pulpit while paying his salary for the next five years.

However, not everyone was put off by Rabbi Siegel’s decidedly scathing view of his affluent Long Island congregants. Progressive Jews at the then-unaffiliated CJC loved what they read in “Amen” and asked him to come to the newly established planned community to become their congregation’s first spiritual leader.

In a 2017 interview with Jmore, Rabbi Siegel recalled that coming to Columbia in the early 1970s felt like entering “the Promised Land. It was like living in Berkeley [California] during the ’60s and ’70s — open-minded, kind, creative, writing our own prayer book, very innovative.”

In addition to his pastoral duties, Rabbi Siegel was active in many social justice causes, including homelessness and poverty. He was also involved in founding the Howard County Food Bank, the Howard County Partnership Against Substance Abuse and the Howard County Clergy for Social Justice.

Rabbi Siegel — who also went by the first name of Joshua — retired from CJC in 1997 to form an institute for spiritual healing in Ellicott City. At the same time, he became the national chaplain for Amtrak.

In recent years, Rabbi Siegel developed the course “Paths to Living a Spiritually Based Life.” Geared toward students of all religious backgrounds and perspectives, the course aimed to help students find spirituality in their daily lives.

“The need for spirituality is universal,” Rabbi Siegel told Jmore. “It’s built into the nature of being human. Living a materialistic or secular life is not enough. We must find another way to live.”

Rabbi Siegel is survived by his children, Toby Siegel Martin (Kerry Martin) and Sally Siegel Clifford (George Jacobs), and his grandchildren, Jabari Orr, Aidan Evans, Jaden Martin, Jada Martin and Ava Orr, and members of the Monday Torah class, the Thursday class and congregants of CJC.

He was predeceased in September of 2001 by his wife, Judith Siegel (nee Tobias).

Funeral services for Rabbi Siegel were held at The Meeting House in Columbia on Monday, Feb. 26, with interment at Columbia Memorial Park in Clarksville. Contributions in Rabbi Siegel’s memory may be sent to Columbia Jewish Congregation, 5885 Robert Oliver Place, Columbia, Maryland 21045.

“What a huge loss to CJC and Judaism as a whole,” posted the congregation on social media. “His life’s work was to share the wisdom and beauty of Torah and to bring love and respect between all people into the world — for each one of us to be a blessing and to bring light into darkness in the world. Rabbi Siegel will be sorely missed by so many!”

Wrote Rabbi Yanky Baron, executive director of Chabad of Ellicott City: “We are saddened to hear the news about the passing of Rabbi Joshua Martin Siegel. May his memory be a blessing. He was a great friend of Chabad and will be sorely missed in our community.”