Rabbi Theodore Tsuruoka of Temple Isaiah of Great Neck died Sunday. He was 69.
Temple Isaiah Co-President Helman Brook said Tsuruoka’s death was a “difficult day for everybody at the congregation.”
“He was truly a spiritual man who reflected his spirituality in everything that he did; in his sermons, in his teachings, in his counseling,” Brook said. “He was greatly respected by everyone that he met.”
While he was known as a “traditional rabbi,” Brook said, Tsuruoka was raised in a Methodist household to Japanese parents on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Tsuruoka told the Jewish Daily Forward in 2013 that he was 16 years old when he first went to the Jewish Theological Seminar in Manhattan to speak with a rabbi about his feelings for God.
“The questions I was asking the minster weren’t terribly satisfying, and just not connecting me with my feelings towards God,” he said. “I felt more comfortable at the Jewish Theological Seminary, primarily because the connection with God was more direct.”
By age 22, Tsuruoka had converted to Judaism.
After graduating from City College with a bachelor of arts degree in sociology and a bachelor of science degree in math, he went on to receive his masters degree in math at Georgetown University.
He served as chief financial officer for Planned Parenthood Federation of America until 1979 when he began working for his family’s picture framing business.
Tsuruoka came to the temple in 2000 when the congregation was searching for a new “spiritual leader.”
Lloyd Perell said he remembers when Tsuruoka arrived for his first interview at the temple and its members did not realize he was the candidate they were waiting for.
“At that time, Temple Isaiah was renting space in local church that had an Asian congregation,” said Perell, who chaired Temple Isaiah’s search committee at the time. “It was not unusual for us to see Asians around the building. We didn’t give it a second thought when we saw him.”
Although Tsuruoka was still completing his rabbinic studies at the Academy for Jewish Religion at the time of his interview, Perell said ,the congregation knew he was the best candidate to head the temple.
“He told us the story of his spiritual journey to Judaism as a young man,” Perell said. “We were so taken by that we didn’t feel the need to interview anybody else.”
Temple Isaiah Co-President Kathie Davis said Tsuruoka’s demeanor during the interview impressed the search committee.
“At the interview, he sat right down, he rolled up his sleeves and boom,” Davis said. “We just knew right away that he was our rabbi.”
Tsuruoka was ordained a rabbi in 2004.
Perell said members of the congregation had attended his ordination ceremony.
Over the past 15 years since joining the temple, Perell said, Tsuruoka was active in offering classes, lectures and engaging with its members.
“He energized the congregation. He was involved in everything,” Perell said. “He was a very, very active rabbi. Even when he was a student he was working the equivalent of full time hours.”
Davis said aside from his sermons and teachings at the temple Tsuruoka was an easily approachable person that anybody could talk to.
“If you needed him, he was a good shoulder to lean on,” she said. “He was very intelligent, very caring and he would visit people in the hospital or at home to comfort them.”
Tsuruoka is survived by his wife, Linda, their two children, Jeff and Amy, and two grandchildren, Sarah and Noah.
A funeral service was held Tuesday morning at the Boulevard-Riverside Chapel in Hewlett.
