Professor Alan F. Segal has passed away

My friend and colleague Alan F. Segal passed away yesterday, Sunday Feb. 13. I knew Alan for over thirty years and treasured his friendship and collegiality. He was a great intuitive scholar and thinker whose mind sailed across centuries and disciplines. He made great contributions to his fields of study in numerous books, articles, reviews and lectures.

Alan also made many friends who will miss him dearly. On December 12, 2010 Barnard College held an all day colloquium in his honor on the occasion of his retirement. It was a proud day for Alan but also a sad day for his friends and colleagues who knew that he was ill.

I had the honor of driving a few miles up the road to Ho-ho-kus to bring him a bagel and talk with him on numerous occasions on Mondays over the past year. He finished writing a new book and continued to think and talk seriously about ideas and about political matters.

At the dinner in his honor in December I offered a toast to Alan that I formulated from the six archetypes of the perfect synagogue out of my most recent writing.

And now I repeat the conclusion of those words as a memory for my friend who in his most sincere and holy way was the ideal davener and a great Jew.

To Alan זכר צדיק לברכה

a scholar of proper priestly demeanor,
a writer with a mystical imagination,
a researcher with immense scribal erudition,
a lecturer with a great performer’s talents,
a defender of his people with a celebrity’s prominence,
and a true friend with meditative graces and compassion.