Published: 15 March 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
WHEN MICHAEL LEZAK imagined what his future as a rabbi might look like, he didn’t foresee a needle exchange or free HIV and hepatitis C testing next door to his office, or naloxone being administered at least once a week in his hallway to someone who has overdosed on heroin.
Nor, for that matter, did he imagine that his office would be in a church.
That church is Glide Memorial United Methodist Church. Founded by pastor emeritus Cecil Williams and his wife, Janice Mirikitani, Glide is located in the Tenderloin, one of San Francisco’s most impoverished neighborhoods, and as such, it has been ministering to its residents for 50 years, providing 2,000 meals daily and other social services—without judgment—along with a renowned gospel choir as part of its worship “celebrations,” in Glide parlance.
Lezak’s official title is staff rabbi at the Glide Centr for Social Justice. In practice, the job that the 50-year-old Reform rabbi has carved out for himself in this past year and a half is unlike that of any other. Lezak calls his post “shlichut,” in that he is an emissary of the Jewish community.
FULL STORY: The rabbi and his church (Tablet)
Photo: Michael Lezak serves a meal at Glide (Alain McLaughlin)
