Activist and ‘mensch’ Jerry Small dies
After moving here, Detroit native founded Albuquerque AIDS Walk
In the Yiddish language, the word “mensch” means a good person, someone who is kind and considerate and acts with honor and integrity. That’s how Jerry Small is described by people who knew him.
Active in the Jewish and LGBTQ communities, and known for his ever-present cowboy hats, Small died of heart failure at the University of New Mexico Hospital on Jan. 25, one day after his 88th birthday.
“He was a mensch,” Congregation Albert’s Rabbi Harry Rosenfeld said. “He was one of the sweetest, nicest, kindest and toughest people I’ve ever met. He did it kindly, but he didn’t put up with people’s nonsense. He was innovative, creative and had a magnetism that drew people to him in the best way. When you go down the list of things he created, it’s just amazing.”
Small was born and raised in Detroit. He moved to Los Angeles after high school and received a degree in public relations from the University of California, Los Angeles.
He was one of the founders of the first LGBTQ synagogues in Los Angeles, and was the first director of Nechama: A Jewish Response to AIDS, established in Los Angeles in 1988, shortly before he moved to Albuquerque.
After relocating here, Small founded the Albuquerque AIDS Walk, cochaired Albuquerque’s Hanukkah festival, was a board member and volunteer with the New Mexico Holocaust Museum and Gellert Center for Education, was president of Common Bond, and was active with a number of AIDS and LGBTQ education and support groups. He was also a longtime member of the Congregation Albert Brotherhood.
An accomplished Japanese brush painter, Small taught the art through classes at the University of New Mexico.
Phyllis Wolf, director of arts, culture and education at the Jewish Community Center, said she worked with Small in organizing the annual Hanukkah festival in addition to a number of other projects.
“Jerry was always willing to pitch in with ideas and elbow grease,” she said. “He was very positive, had great energy and was very warm, engaging and helpful.”
Kevin Hoover, former executive director for New Mexico AIDS Services, moved to Albuquerque in 1994 and met Small while volunteering with the Albuquerque AIDS Walk.
“Jerry had come from Los Angeles and had a lot of connections. He knew how to make things happen and he was very good at fundraising. He was not afraid to pick up the phone and call people and ask for help and money,” Hoover said. “He wasn’t bashful.”
Small’s ability to rally people and their money for a cause was also noted by Lyn Berner, director of administration at the New Mexico Holocaust Museum.
She recalled that Small spearheaded a drive that raised $45,000 toward bringing an exhibit, “Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals, 1933-1935,” from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
“Jerry was a very generous person and nonjudgmental,” she said. “He was committed to telling the story of people who were disenfranchised.”
Another longtime friend, Tom Donelan, was the finance director of New Mexico AIDS Services when he met Small in the mid-1990s.
“He was somebody who saw the work that needed to be done to make the world better, and he’d jump in and do it, no matter what the work was, and he did it without fanfare,” Donelan said.
Even though Small “was never one to get up and toot his own horn,” Donelan said, “Jerry was a flashy dresser and had an amazing collection of cowboy hats. You didn’t miss him walking down the street.”
Small is survived by his son Adam, niece Doreen Darwish, and greatniece Esther Zengele.
A remote memorial service was held Feb. 3 on the Congregation Albert Facebook page.
An online celebration of life will be held at 2 p.m. Feb. 13. For information and a link to the service, send an email to info@firsteyefilm.com.