Comments delivered by Rebecca Canner (left) in honor or Alan Haber (right)
Hillel used to say: be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving humankind and drawing them close to the Torah.
(Pirkei Avot 1:12)
Alan Haber is a true disciple of Aaron. He has lived his life loving and pursuing peace, loving humankind, and drawing us close to the Torah through the works of his hands and by example.
On July 29, Alan turned 90 and on behalf of the congregation, I am offering this appreciation to celebrate Alan.
Alan is a forever activist. Here are only a few highlights:
His activism started in the mid-1950’s. Alan grew up in Ann Arbor and enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1954, where his father William Haber was the dean of LSA – at times, Alan’s activism made the two of them visible opponents. It is no surprise that Alan did not graduate until 1965: he was one active activist! While a student, Alan was a founder of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), and its first national president. He was one of the authors in 1962 of the Port Huron Statement, an eloquent manifesto, proposing an agenda for a generation. Alan was also one of the organizers of the first teach-in on the Vietnam War at the UM in 1965.
Alan has been described as Ann Arbor’s resident radical and also Ann Arbor’s reticent visionary. His occupations have been listed as American activist and cabinetmaker.
Alan left Ann Arbor for Berkeley, California. He told me once that passing a woodworking shop while walking in Berkeley, he smelled that wonderful smell of newly cut wood. It drew him in and his life changed forever. This is when he became both a woodworker and a “freelance radical intellectual”. Berkeley is also where Alan met Odile Hugonot and they became lifelong partners in life and in their activism.
When I met Alan in the 80’s at a New Jewish Agenda conference in New Jersey, he told me that as a woodworker, he was “an ark-ist”. Our congregation became a beneficiary of his ark making. When Alan moved back to Ann Arbor, with Odile, they joined the Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Havurah. With his skilled hands, Alan drew us close to our torah. He made our ark and our Torah table, using members’ wood and working collaboratively with other congregants. He designed our ark, in accordance with the instructions in the Torah for the building of the Mishkan. Alan also made another smaller ark to hold the beautiful Megillat Esther we read from on Purim. He made a Peace Table that has traveled the world. At the Hague Appeal for Peace in 1999, several Nobel Peace Prize laureates sat at Alan’s Peace Table.
Alan continues to pursue peace and on the occasion of his 90th birthday, he shared a political strategy towards a better way. Alan is no longer a reticent visionary, he is a bold visionary. He is truly a forever activist and we all benefit from his activism, love, and the model he is of creativity, intelligence, commitment, and enduring allegiance to his values and his dreams of a humanity abiding in peace.
Alan, ad me’ah v’esrim. We wish you health and joy in your pursuit of peace with justice.
