Saul Adelson

To read David's eulogy for Saul, click here. 

CBE mourns Saul Adelson, father of our member Rabbi David Adelson and Anna Adelson, father-in-law of our member Lynn Harris, and grandfather of Bee Adelson and Sam Harris.

Saul Adelson was a man of modest beginnings, simple tastes, and few words. A natural caretaker, he gave deep hugs and cared about the Jewish people—and all people.

Saul was born in Heightstown, NJ, to Isadore and Rebecca Adelson. He was the fourth of five children and lived adjacent to a socialist Jewish farming community until age five, when his family moved to the Bronx. It was at that time that his father left the family. Among his greatest achievements was becoming a tender, strong, and loving father to David and Anna, despite having grown up without a father of his own.

Saul grew up poor. His mother supported her five children, her immigrant parents, and her sister. Saul remembered envying the kids who had the one penny to buy candy—he had no penny. When the kids wore holes in the bottom of their shoes, they covered them by cutting inserts out of cardboard.

He followed his brother Martin into the Zionist socialist youth movement, HaShomer HaTzair, which profoundly shaped the course of his life. He spent his teenage years debating socialist philosophy. Having dropped out of high school, he instead headed straight to a kibbutz training camp in New Jersey. He made aliyah to Israel in 1951 and remained until 1959. He lived on Kibbutz Nirim, where he drove a tractor, built a combine, once ran over a landmine, defended Mount Scopus on reserve duty, and participated in the establishment of the Jewish state.

Following his return to the United States, Saul struggled to find his path until he met Betty Meyrowitz in 1965. They were introduced by mutual HaShomer friends. He had lost his citizenship for serving in a foreign army during wartime, so when they met, he had no green card, no driver’s license, no high school diploma—and was sleeping on the examining table of a doctor friend of the family, after being burnt out of the apartment he’d shared with his mother. Quite a catch. But, in truth, he was. Betty saw the sensitive, loving, competent, intelligent, and handsome man he was. They were married within six months.

Once Betty helped him find his way back to school, he earned architecture and engineering degrees at City College. He went to work for the Health and Hospitals Corporation, planning renovations on New York City public hospitals. In 1972, he and Betty scraped together the down payment to buy a house on 6th Street in Park Slope; he spent most of the rest of his life repairing, reconfiguring, and renovating it. David and Anna’s image of him from their childhood is with a hammer in his hand. Or a wrench. Or a paintbrush.

He was a loving father who was a full co-parent to David and Anna. He cooked for them when Betty worked late and stayed up with them when they were sick. He designed and installed physical accommodations for Anna and supported them into adulthood through logistical and emotional moments of need. In his quiet way, he let them know they were deeply loved.

In later years, he took care of Bee and Sam after school and at other times, as they lived just upstairs in the house on 6th Street. Saul took loving care of Betty during her decade-long decline with Alzheimer’s.

After a lifetime of taking care of others and receiving their love in return, Saul is at rest. May his memory be a blessing.

A funeral will take place in the CBE Chapel (274 Garfield Place, Brooklyn), on Tuesday, July 8 at 10 a.m., with private burial to follow. Shiva gatherings will meet in the CBE boardroom (274 Garfield Place) on Tuesday, July 8 and Wednesday, July 9, from 5-8 p.m., with minyanim at 7 p.m.

May Saul’s memory forever be a blessing and may his loved ones be comforted among the mourners of Zion, Jerusalem, and throughout the world.