Rabbi Levi A. Olan: The Conscience of the City

“It is the ‘Gotterdammerung’, the Twilight of the Gods!” The first half of the title to Rabbi Olan’s March 17, 1968 radio sermon is a direct reference to Karl Marx’s famous words, “Religion is the …

“In most critical situations, we can light a candle instead of cursing the darkness.“ Rabbi Olan begins this sermon by normalizing “periods of despair and frustration” as reactions both to bad news from the wider …

“There is no easy road to the Promised Land. There is no way of avoiding the wilderness of suffering and endurance in our journey towards the better life. No one can relieve us of our …

“I am going to talk to you today about God.” In many of his sermons, Rabbi Olan talked about atheism and belief in God. In this sermon, delivered on February 11, 1968, he placed belief …

“To be human is to be personally responsible for a good measure of one’s life.” On February 4, 1968 Rabbi Olan returned to a theme that he preached many times: the reciprocal relationship between freedom …

“We are what others want us to be. We make ourselves up attractively to appeal to the current market. What we really are, as persons with individual ideas, ethical values and tastes is submerged in …

“We are unwise when we reject those stones which are the chief corner-stone of our tradition.“ In this sermon, delivered on January 21, 1968, Rabbi Olan challenges us and himself to answer the question, how …

“As we hang the new calendar for the year 1968, the prognosis is not a cheerful one.” Rabbi Olan’s foresight was correct. 1968 turned out to be a year of conflict and calamity. He could …