Chaplain Gary Friedman, Seattle
IN memoriam, Chaplain Gary Friedman, Seattle
It’s August 23, 2017. I'm saddened to just learn this afternoon that Gary Friedman, who was director of Jewish Prison Services International (headquartered out of his Seattle apartment), left this world on February 9, 2016. Chaplain Friedman was also the Chaplain for Jewish inmates for the Washington state Department of Corrections.
Chaplain did great work on behalf of Jewish inmates. While we didn't eye-to-eye on some things (as to be expected among Jewish people, on issues ranging from cigarettes - he was an addicted cigarette smoker – and he rejected the consensus of rabbis of almost all denominations, including Orthodox ones - the Lubavitcher Hasidim may be the sole holdout - that smoking is completely "trayf,” as in forbidden), I respected him and his work, and he respected me for my interest in volunteering to help the marginalized, and prisoners are among those who are greatly marginalized in American society.
While many of us who volunteered were not Orthodox, e.g. with the group programs a colleague and I organized for group holiday programs, he was very accepting of those of us who volunteered to do tzedakah (volunteer community aid) with Jewish prisoners yet who were not religiously engaged as he (as he was Orthodox). He himself attended services and meals with with Lubavitcher Hasidim in Seattle and elsewhere.
To his credit, he was accepting of Jewish inmates who had either a scant or no Jewish anything when they were growing up. He also accepted Jewish prisoners who had a Jewish father but not a Jewish mother (and were thus not considered Jewish by the Orthodox, as the Orthodox only accept matrilinear descent for defining being Jewish).
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I knew very little about him personally other than his strong belief in God and in observing the Jewish sabbath, eating kosher foods, observing Jewish holidays and in his interest to assist Jewish inmates, wherever and anywhere. He was reportedly born at Swedish Hospital, Seattle, 1944 and was raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. He once told me me that his mom was in Vancouver. And he had told me he had been incarcerated himself, in a Federal prison, in California.
According to Deacon John Tomandl (see the attached url of an article, below, from the Correctional Chaplains group) Gary had served in the U.S. Army, including at bases in Europe.
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After a Jewish inmate wrote me, via snail mail; the inmate had read a news article about my art and education work published in the late Jewish Transcript newspaper, I made my first visit to a prison, accompanied by now retired Seattle -area rabbi Jim Mirel, and his wife, Julie, who is a cantor, to attend a Passover program at a prison at the Monroe Correctional center in Washington state. Chaplain Friedman attended with us. That first visit led to my doing prison visits over a number of years. Gary was really pleased with that. Between around 1995 or ‘96 and 2006 I did twice-monthly prison visits with Jewish inmates in Washington state prisons.
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For a few years after 2006 I co-led a once-a-year program at major holidays like Chanukah or Pesach (Passover). Gary always joined us for the large group holiday programs at the prisons; and he always spoke to us, as a group, before we all entered the prison, where we had to check our belts, ID’s, wallets, purses, etc. in lockers before proceeding into the inside of the prison.
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During my first year of prison visits, a congregant from a Seattle congregation, Bet Alef went with me; he drove. Later I enlisted the congregational community of Eitz Or, the Renewal denomination synagogue in Seattle, for our large group visits. At least one non- Jewish friend joined us at one program. Several Jewish students attending the University of Wash students who were active at the local Hillel (Jewish student) Center joined us, too.
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During one visit, attended by Chaplain Friedman, I presented a Holocuast and tolerance education slide class to a multi-background (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Native American, African-American) audience of inmates. A Christian colleague, now- retired campus pastor Brooke Rolston, attended with us and he joined me during the Q&A phase of the program following my slide class (which focused on the art of late survivor Israel Bernbaum and my wings series drawings).
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As I wrote in letters-to-the-editor published in the late Jewish Transcript newspaper, Seattle; and in the late Forward newspaper, New York City (now a magazine) Jewish prisoners face numerous hurdles which Christian inmates, especially white inmates, do not face and contend with. ~ Along with Jewish inmates, other minority prisoners, e.g. African-Americans, Muslim-Americans, Native Americans, and others face great challenges in prisons which white Christian inmates do not have to endure. Most prisons are located in rural towns in states around the US. At state prisons, politically conservative, evangelical and proselytizing Christian chaplains have enormous political muscle in all manner of operations for prisoners re: the use of chapel space for worship, for shelf space of religious books, of foods and faith-based services and the practice of religious observances.
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Even getting basics like Kosher or Halal food for Jewish and Muslim inmates who seek it is a major battle. Having a Chanukah menorah (lamp) in a chapel for lighting candles at Chanukah can be a major hurdle. There is often scant to no interest by state prison officials in assisting. Chaplain Friedman fought long and hard for inmates. And he did so with the experience of he himself having been a prisoner. Likewise, arranging for chapel space for Jewish inmates to meet (with or without volunteers from the outside, as we did) is challenging; whereas there is never any difficulty in arranging worship and meeting and singing spaces for those inmates who profess Christianity as their faith and interest.
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I'm sure that Muslim inmates have the same problems as to Jewish ones, and I recall hearing that Chaplain Friedman worked on behalf of getting kosher foods, which can be eaten by Muslim inmates who eat halal, which is the Islamic counterpart to kosher. ~ May Gary Friedman’s memory be blessed.
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An obit of Gary with blurbs penned by several chaplains:
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A 1999 online article about Gary and Jewish Prison Services International
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A 2003 article penned by Chaplain Friedman, published in the JPSI website
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A 2010 article about Jewish prisoners; Chaplain Friedman is mentioned