A set of ornate hand-carved oak doors lead to the baptistry at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown St. Louis. The doors were added to the 155-year-old Episcopal cathedral in 1942. They are inscribed with a commandment from Deuteronomy 6:5 in Hebrew and English. Near the top, another inscription notes they were a gift from Congregation Temple Israel. In November 1962, Christ Church Cathedral reciprocated when it gave Temple Israel a sculpture that still hangs on the synagogue’s south outside wall facing Ladue Road.
Those two acts of interfaith collegiality began with the friendship and mutual respect among two St. Louis religious leaders, Bishop William Scarlett and Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman.
The rabbi and the bishop
Isserman was born March 4, 1898, in Antwerp, Belgium. His family immigrated to the United States and Isserman grew up in Newark, N.J.. He enrolled in Hebrew Union College in 1914 and was ordained in 1922.
He held rabbinical posts in Philadelphia and Toronto. During the latter at Toronto Hebrew Congregation, he arranged Canada’s first pulpit exchange between a Christian minister and a Jewish rabbi. In 1929, Isserman became rabbi at Temple Israel, where he remained through the next 34 years. Throughout his career, Isserman continued to champion social justice and interfaith relations.
Scarlett was born in 1883 in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Harvard University, then earned a law degree from the University of Arizona and a divinity degree from the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass. He was consecrated in 1930 at Christ Church Cathedral. Scarlett was a founder of the local chapter of the Conference of Christians and Jews. He condemned racism and advocated for equal rights.
In 1933, Scarlett was one of eight non-Jews listed in the who’s who issue of the “American Hebrew” for speaking out against Nazi antisemitism. He called for a protest meeting at Christ Church Cathedral to denounce Nazism. In a 1933 editorial in “The Modern View,” Isserman wrote glowingly about Scarlett, calling him, “One of the truly great men in our community.”
Isserman and Scarlett, who arrived in St. Louis months apart, were like minded and became friends. It wasn’t unusual to find interfaith relations among clergy in the mid-1900s, according to Rabbi Mark Shook, rabbi emeritus at Temple Israel.
“I think Isserman reached out to these people and did it on his own,” Shook said. “He created these relationships and was able to talk to them and speak with them and invite them to come and address the congregation. This was a big deal for him.”
Another common practice for Isserman and Scarlett was to participate in a pulpit exchange during Brotherhood Week in February. It became an annual event among the two institutions. Interfaith get-togethers were also common during that month between Temple Israel and the neighboring Christian churches along Kingshighway Boulevard, Shook said.
“They had a ‘holy corners dinner’ with Temple Israel, Second Baptist Church and St. John’s Methodist Church,” Shook said. “It was a February dinner, and all the congregations would gather and hold this dinner in honor of Brotherhood Week.”
The two gifts
On the 10th anniversary of Scarlett’s consecration as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, Isserman, on behalf of Temple Israel, announced his intention to have the baptistry doors carved by hand. Isserman delivered his offer in writing to Dean Sidney Sweet, the church reverend, saying in part: “I would consider it a great privilege to present to Christ Church Cathedral some concrete evidence of our appreciation for [Scarlett].”
Sweet, representing the church, accepted the doors and wrote in response, “We shall always value it. . . as an expression of the good will which exists between your congregation and Christ Church Cathedral.”
Temple Israel commissioned the architecture firm Nagel & Dunn to create the doors in a motif that would match the architectural style of the vestibule. Congregation members accompanied Isserman to dedicate the doors. An editorial in the St. Louis Post Dispatch on April 12, 1942, called the gesture an act of brotherhood that “shines as a clear light on a dark night.” That message may have been a reference to the growing antisemitism in American and Europe.
Scarlett retired in 1952 and moved to Maine. By the time the new Temple Israel building in Creve Coeur was completed in 1962, Scarlett’s replacement had been consecrated. George Cadigan, like his predecessor, championed social justice. He was also a progressive and supported the full inclusion of LGBTQ members in the church.
Cadigan was on hand for Shabbat services at Temple Israel on Nov. 30, 1962, to officially present Isserman and the synagogue with a sculpture that depicts the rainbow sent by G-d to Noah after the flood as a covenant with mankind to never again destroy the world by flood. It was created by Robert Crombach, a noted New York sculptor (the artist happened to be a former St. Louisan who was confirmed at Temple Israel). The temple bulletin on that day said the gift was a continuation of “the historic friendship between the church and Temple Israel.”
Isserman legacy
Around the same time the Crombach sculpture first adorned the outside of Temple Israel, Isserman honored his old friend William Scarlett one more time, inside the with a display akin to an interfaith hall of fame that praised St. Louis interfaith leaders.
“It became known as the Wall of Brotherhood,” Shook said. “They were beautifully engraved wooden plaques that went on the wall of the library in the temple.”
The legacy of Ferdinand Isserman extends well beyond the baptistry doors. In 1972, the Rabbi M. Ferdinand Isserman Memorial Lecture was established at Washington University with gifts collected from Temple Israel and other donors. The first lecture was given in 1973 by Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general, according to Rev. Callista Isabelle, the university’s director of religious, spiritual and ethical life.
“We continue to host lectures approximately every other year at WashU,” Isabelle said. “The Rabbi Ferdinand M. Isserman Prize was established in 1992 by Rabbi Isserman’s widow, Ruth Isserman, and friends. WashU continues to award these prizes annually.”
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