Credit: James Estrin/The New York Times
The other day, I received an official notice from Rev. Chloe Breyer via email, announcing the death of the founder of the Interfaith Center of New York. The Very Rev. James Morton, an icon and interreligious leader of enormous stature, had passed. Her tribute recalled the breadth of his contributions. I paused to think of how I remembered him.
But what struck me later, were two other emails I received. I got an email from Scottie Twine, a former colleague, one of my partners in building Tanenbaum and a dear friend, who wrote to make sure that several of us had taken note of Jim’s passing.
She knew Jim Morton from living on the Upper West Side and from her own social justice and environmental work (he served on the organization she and her husband founded, Upper Westside Recycling). Scottie shared that Jim and his wife Pamela had reached their 65th anniversary just before he passed. She closed her note to me by saying “Jim was a man who followed his heart, and we’re glad to have had him in our lives.”
A second came from Tanenbaum‘s founder and Board President, Georgette Bennett. She had seen Scottie‘s email and shared her own personal memories and special moments that are not to be forgotten.
The public tributes on Jim’s work from the arts to housing to visioning will no doubt continue in the days to come. But I think the greatest tributes are the quiet sharings of friends, who remember Jim Morton, are grateful for his life, and hold him in their hearts.
May his memory be for a blessing,
Joyce Dubensky
Tanenbaum CEO