The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Stamford rabbi remembered for his wit and heart
STAMFORD — Ari Golub asked those gathered Thursday at Temple Beth El what was the first word that came to their minds when they thought about his father, Mark Golub.
“The easy answer is rabbi,” said Ari Golub, one of Mark Golub’s five children.
“He identified as a rabbi so much so that he put it on his credit cards: ‘Rabbi Mark S. Golub,’ ” Ari Golub said. “I can’t tell you the number of times I heard him on the phone with a hotel or an airline, and they greeted him as Rabbi Mark.”
Ari Golub paused as family members and friends of his father laughed.
“But he was so, so much more than a rabbi,” Ari Golub said.
Mark Golub, 77, died last week at Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, according to an obituary circulated by the United Jewish Federation of Stamford, New Canaan, and Darien.
He founded Chavurat Aytz Chayim in Stamford in the early 1970s and led Chavurat Deevray Torah in Greenwich.
Golub was also the founding president, chief executive officer and executive producer of the Jewish Broadcasting Service. He previously launched the Russian Television Network of America, a Russian-language channel directed toward families that had immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union.
For decades — first on the radio and later at JBS — Golub hosted a program called “L’Chayim.” The JBS website describes the show as a “‘Charlie-Rose’ type program” that “features meetings with the leading figures on the world Jewish stage.”
“It’s very hard to explain what makes somebody fall in love with something, but I have been in love with radio and television since I was a child,” Golub told the Stamford Advocate in 2016, when JBS was about to start being carried nationally.
“What I wanted to do with JBS was inform and educate and inspire American Jews through the power of electronic media ... that’s why it is so exciting to go nationwide.”
Journalist and author Abigail Pogrebin read those words aloud Thursday during Golub’s funeral service at Temple Beth El.
“Well, Mark, you succeeded in spades and then some,” Pogrebin said. “You inspired and educated American Jews, indeed, Americans, indeed, across the country, across the world. You inspired and educated the world, and you did it with your inimitable heart and your incomparable work ethic.
“No one’s curiosity was more infectious than yours,” she continued. “No interviewer was more prepared or more pointed or more pushy or more personal. No one’s zeal for the Jewish story was more fervent, more unshakable, more exuberant.”
Loved ones shared stories highlighting Golub’s humor, his talent as an accordion player and his passion for softball during the service, which was livestreamed on Temple Beth El’s website.
Ken Asher, a longtime friend of Golub’s who serves on the JBS board of directors, said Golub was a teacher who made everyone feel loved.
“I’m going to miss you, Mark,” Asher said. “We had a deal. The deal was you were going to do my funeral, and I wasn’t going to speak at yours. But I’m doing this, and I will carry on with JBS, I will carry on your legacy to the best of my ability for the rest of my days.”
Golub also produced plays on Broadway with his brother, David. At Thursday’s service, David Golub said his brother “had an indomitable will” in the face of health issues.
“He was not going to let them change his life,” David Golub said. “He was not going to stop living. He was going to choose life.”
Mark Golub studied religion at Columbia University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1967, according to his LinkedIn page. He was later ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
In 2009, Newsweek included him on a list of the 50 most influential rabbis in the United States.
Golub is survived by his wife, Ruth; five children; and five grandchildren, according to his obituary.