[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 7030]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                   REMEMBERING RABBI GEDALIAH ANEMER

 Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I would like to take this 
opportunity to honor Rabbi Gedaliah Anemer, a beloved Orthodox Jewish 
leader and scholar who passed away at age 78 on April 15, 2010.
  For more than 50 years, Rabbi Anemer served as a religious guide, 
compassionate counselor, and an authority on Jewish practices and laws 
to his Silver Spring congregation. His leadership and spiritualism 
helped to nurture a strong, vibrant Orthodox Jewish community in the 
Greater Washington area and strengthened his congregants' love of 
Judaism and connection to Israel. He also founded the Yeshiva of 
Greater Washington in Silver Spring, helping to educate a future 
generation of Jewish spiritual leaders.
  Rabbi Anemer was born in Akron, OH, in 1932 and studied as a boy at 
the Tiferes Yerushalayim in New York. In 1952, he was ordained from the 
Telshe Yeshiva. For the 5 years following his ordination, Rabbi Anemer 
was the head of the Yeshiva of the Boston Rabbinical Seminary. In 1957, 
he became spiritual leader of a small congregation in Washington, DC, 
Shomrei Emunah. In 1961, the synagogue was renamed Young Israel Shomrei 
Emunah of Greater Washington, YISE, and later moved to Silver Spring, 
becoming the first Orthodox synagogue in Montgomery County.
  In Silver Spring, Rabbi Anemer and YISE became a ``cornerstone'' of 
the Kemp Mill Orthodox community. Rabbi Anemer's energy and enthusiasm 
for his congregants, for his neighbors, and for the Jewish people could 
be observed in his daily endeavors: Holding minyon in his basement, 
leading services for his congregation, presiding as the head of the 
Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington's beit din, or religious 
court, and acting as a mentor and confidant to his community.
  Under his leadership, YISE flourished. The shul originally started by 
holding services in private homes. As it grew, YISE moved to a number 
of different locations--a clubhouse, the basement of an apartment 
building, a condemned house awaiting demolition, and a Masonic 
building--before settling into its own, newly constructed building. 
Services were held in Hebrew and English because the majority of the 
congregation's participants were scientists and engineers who did not 
have a Yeshiva education. Rabbi Anemer also sponsored a number of 
Jewish learning activities including children's services, Talmud night, 
and regular adult education classes. He became the spiritual leader of 
a congregation that grew from 30 families in 1963 to more than 500 
families today.
  Rabbi Anemer wore many hats in his career and in his personal life. 
He was a loving husband, a devoted father to four children, a caring 
brother, and a fiercely compassionate friend. I ask my colleagues to 
join me in remembering the many accomplishments of Rabbi Gedaliah 
Anemer and in recognizing him as a pioneer and friend to the Jewish 
Orthodox community of the Greater Washington area.

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