New Member Profile: Richard and Marsha Eisenberg

BASICS: What are your names and any nicknames?

Rich and Marsha Eisenberg. We’ve been married 58+ years. 

YOU: Tell us about you and your family.

Marsha and I grew up in Los Angeles in the “schmatta” (garment) business, which taught me what I did not want as a life-long endeavor.  After we got our degrees at UCLA we moved to Rochester, NY with a 5-week-old.  After two winters with 146 inches of snow, I accepted an invitation to become one of ten Founding Faculty at the Medical School at University of Minnesota Duluth.  I was head of the Department of Pharmacology for 29 years, had leadership roles in pharmacology professional societies, and am now a medical school professor emeritus. I was an early developer of educational software in several disciplines, and we established a small business to distribute our programs nationally and internationally. Professionally, Marsha began as a Junior High school art teacher, then was campaign coordinator for the Jewish Federation of Duluth, and finally retired after being Director of the United Way Volunteer Center of Duluth.

I was involved in Duluth community activities including being board president of Temple Israel in Duluth (1981-83) and serving as president of a community mental agency. Marsha has been active on the national Hadassah for several decades and this is a significant part of her activities.  She is also a past president of Temple Israel of Duluth.

We have three children.  Our eldest, Marla, is Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Adolescent Research. Our middle child, Aaron, is a Senior Partner with Deloitte Consulting.  And you probably know our youngest, Shana Eisenberg, the religious school’s song leader and an accomplished professional singer and an actor in community theater.  Our seven grandchildren range from 17-24.

BELONG: What does belonging to a synagogue mean to you?

Synagogue ended for me with Bar Mitzvah. Marsha grew up with a more modest connection:  celebration of holidays with family and a once a year trek to a synagogue for the High Holidays.  It resurfaced, in part, when our first-born reached Sunday School age.  It was also a “fact of life” in Duluth; if you were a part of Jewish social life, Temple was involved.  Thus, the connection was made.

HERE: Why did you choose Bet Shalom?

Bet Shalom will better fit our current needs, and it’s only seven minutes from home.  We have known Rabbi David Locketz since early youth group, through camp and college (he is one of our son’s closest friends).  We originally joined Shir Tikvah because of our daughters’ connection, an equally long history with their rabbi, and its similarity to our congregation in Duluth. Though we enjoy our social chavurah and are responsible for a monthly senior dinner event, our Shir Tikvah connection seems to have dwindled. But we will maintain a partial membership there.