16 years of building bonds

Irvin Ehrlich has seen a lot of changes at Temple Beit Torah in the 16 years since he became its founding rabbi.

The congregation has grown from a handful of founding members to 130 families. Services have moved from people's homes to temporary quarters to a Bonnyville-area building the congregation purchased in 2004. And the young kids he'd see from week to week are on the verge of adulthood.

No wonder he expects to get emotional when he attends his retirement party Sunday.

"I'll be saying goodbye to boys and girls who I named when they were born and, 13 years later, presided over at their bar mitzvah ceremony," said Ehrlich, whose retirement takes effect Tuesday.

It marks the end of a 38-year rabbinical career that he pursued on the advice of his maternal grandmother.

A Knoxville, Tenn., native who grew up in Bainbridge, Ga., Ehrlich received a history degree from the University of Georgia in Athens, and finished his rabbinical studies in 1970 at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati.

In 1974, after leading congregations in Nebraska and Ohio, he became a Jewish chaplain with the U.S. Air Force because, he said, "I was young and thought it would be interesting." After numerous transfers, he ended up at the Air Force Academy in 1989. He retired from the Air Force a few years later to start Temple Beit Torah, a Reform Jewish congregation.

The 67-year-old rabbi believes his most important accomplishment at the temple was helping to form a close congregation.

"We set out from the very first to create a warm and caring group," Ehrlich said. "If you come to our Sabbath worship, you will find that we go out of our way to greet you and get to know you."

Several congregants said they'll miss Ehrlich for his personal touch, which included calls to congregants on their birthdays, wedding anniversaries and other special events.

"He was a people person with his congregation," said 93-year-old Rose Lorig. "When I moved into my new apartment four years ago, he gave me a welcome there."

As he enters retirement, Ehrlich doesn't know how he'll fill his hours. The only concrete thing about his future is that he'll run the database for the National Association of Retired Reform Rabbis from home.

But where's home? He's not sure where it will be.

He and his wife, Vivian, who retired from Memorial Hospital June 13, might move to Madison, Wis., to be closer to their three grown children. Or they might move someplace else, or even stay in Colorado Springs.

"There is no reason to say, ‘Since we're retiring July 1, the moving truck is coming July 2,'" Ehrlich said.

"All time pressure goes away at this time."

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