Gendler was a civil rights activists who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

SARASOTA — Rabbi Everett Gendler, who spent decades working to increase awareness about a number of progressive causes, including the civil rights movement and Jewish environmentalism, has died. hey what 93

Gendler repeatedly marched with the Southern Leadership Conference in Alabama alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was among 11 rabbis jailed with King in Albany, Georgia, for “public prayer without a license” in 1962. He advocated for nonviolence in promoting social change and his work in backing King with the support of Jewish rabbis in Alabama is considered an important milestone in civil rights progress.

Gendler died of natural causes earlier this month at Sarasota Memorial Hospital surrounded by his daughters, wife and family.

Rabbi Everett Gendler (left) looks on at the Concord Hotel in the mid-1950s as Dr.  Martin Luther King, Jr. address a crowd.

He had relocated to Sarasota about 15 years ago from the northeast, continuing his humanitarian work until his passing. Decades before moving to Sarasota, Gendler worked as the Jewish chaplain and instructor in the Religion & Philosophy department at Phillips Andover from 1978 to 1995.

His philanthropy supported many art and music institutions in the Boston area including the Boston Symphony and Orchestra.

But his efforts on behalf of the environment encompassed some of his greatest work, according to family friend Jana Paley. Over a span of 30 years, Gendler published dozens of articles on Jewish environmentalism and taught in hundreds of lectures on gardening and vegetarianism.

“He was many things to many people … he was an amazing gardener for one. But his gardening of vegetables doesn’t compare to his cultivation of communities,” Paley said.

Rabbi Everett Gendler (left) with the Dali Lama

In her eulogy, Gendler’s daughter Tamar Gendler Szabo describes her late father as ahead of his time but also fully present in the world, its injustices, and its beauty.

“Everett was always out in front – sometimes lonely and isolated in his profound awareness of the Earth’s simultaneous beauty and injustice; sometimes accompanied by or leading others who came to share his insight and commitment,” Szabo wrote.

“But in other ways, Everett was slow…he held firm to his typewriter, his vinyl records, his looseleaf tea. He used old-fashioned paper maps…he was also fully present. His life was filled with “radical astonishment” at the beauty of the world that surrounded him and those who inhabited it alongside him.”

Gendler participated in a tribute to King at Temple Emanu-El in Sarasota in 2019 by The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee.

“For those of us who participated (in the Civil Rights Movement), this is such an amazing renewal of the feeling and the experience,” Gendler said at the time. “What we really have to remember is that problems must be identified, confronted and persist yet. Nothing happens overnight. The bread rises slowly and social transformation is baking bread; it’s not a fast order microwave. I think we have to address the issues, persist, recognize that our opponent is also our fellow human-being — it’s hard. That’s an impossible juggling act, but King, he was a tip-top juggler. He managed; we don’t.”

Gendler was involved in the second march back to Selma, Alabama, on March 9, 1965, called “Turnaround Tuesday.” The march came two days after the “Bloody Sunday” march involving about 600 civil rights marchers, ending with an estimated 17 to 50 injuries.

He emphasized King’s honesty in confronting injustice, but his humanity and spirit as well.

“I think it’s extraordinary how King was able to focus on state clearly injustice and confront it always in a loving spirit, never excluding anyone from the human fabric,” Gendler said. “He was courageous. He stood up to Bull Connor (Commissioner of Public Safety) in Birmingham, but never dehumanized him.

Recalling the brutality in Birmingham, he said King stood his ground, “but never with rancor. Never in a way that excluded people. His affirmation of our deeper unity is perhaps needed more today than in those turbulent times.”

Gendler is survived by his wife Mary Gendler and daughters Tamar and Naomi Camper and grandchildren.

Samantha Gholar covers news for the Herald-Tribune and USA TODAY Network. Connect with her at [email protected] or on Twitter: @samanthagweires