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Mel Glazer

Rabbi Mel Glazer

Rabbi Mel Glazer

Rabbi Mel Glazer, spiritual leader of Temple Shalom in Colorado Springs from 2007-2017, passed away peacefully on April 22, 2018, in Florida. He was 71. The service and burial were held April 25 at Arlington Memorial Park in Atlanta, Ga. Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care in Atlanta made the arrangements.

Glazer was a pulpit rabbi, a grief counselor, an expert in Jewish mourning and burial, and an author.

In an Aug. 4, 2011 IJN interview, he cited the 23rd Psalm as imparting his favorite Jewish lesson.

“It says, ‘I will fear no evil, for You are with me,’” he says. “ ‘You’ means G-d, but I interpret it to mean you and you and you and you.

“It teaches me that I do not have to be afraid because there is a community that supports and cares about me, including  G-d, my family, my friends and my congregants.

“That allows me to live my life without being afraid to die. I have a community, and because of them my life is blessed.”

Born and raised in Atlanta, Rabbi Glazer lost his father when he was 12.

“Rabbi Harry Epstein, who had no sons, became my spiritual father,” he said in the interview. “I guess that’s the path I am on now.

“I want to be other people’s spiritual father and help them walk toward getting closer to G-d and other Jews.”

He earned a BA from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary. Ordained by JTS in 1974, he earned a Doctor of Ministry from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1995.

Glazer served congregations in South Orange, NJ; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Nashville; Princeton, NJ; London, Ontario, Canada; Fairfax, Va.; Miami, Fla.; Stroudsburg, Penn.; Colorado Springs; and The Villages in Florida.

He trained Jewish communities to establish their own Jewish burial societies, hosted a weekly radio show about grief and healing, and counseled hundreds of people on loss and learning to gently lay down their grief and find peace.

Glazer’s writings include The London, Ontario Hevra Kaddisha (1995); When Death Visits A Jewish Home (2007) and A GPS for Grief and Healing: 3 Powerful Steps to Help You Move from Mourning to Morning (2013).

Rabbi Mel Glazer is survived by his wife Ellen Mossman Glazer; sons Ilan (Sherri Vishner) Glazer, Rafi (Lauren) Glazer and Avi (Debbie) Glazer and daughter Shoshi Glazer; stepsons Jeremy Mossman and Matt Mossman; grandchildren Baruch, Mordi, Yitzi, Eli, Meir, Rivka and Yehuda Glazer and David and Mitchell Mossman; sister Gail (Barry) Saloff and brother Jerry (Debbie) Glazer.

Contributions may be made to the newly established Rabbi Mel Glazer Chevra Kadisha Educational Fund, c/o Kavod v’Nichum, www.jewish-funerals.org; or to Ellen Mossman Glazer, 16971 SE 93rd Cuthbert Cr., The Villages, FL 32162.

Copyright © 2018 by the Intermountain Jewish News




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