Rabbi Aaron M. Wise; Served 52 Years at Adat Ari El Synagogue

Rabbi Aaron M. Wise, who once marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and served his congregation at Adat Ari El Synagogue in North Hollywood for 52 years, died Monday. He was 86.

Born and raised in Cincinnati, Wise moved to New York to study at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He was ordained there in 1938 and served his first nine years as a rabbi in Schenectady, N. Y., before moving to California.

“He was a real pioneer in the Valley,” said his wife, Miriam. “He initiated many programs.”

Those programs included Jewish education for children and adults, as well as a program he created in 1978 called “Making Marriage Work,” the first of its kind, according to his wife.

Engaged and newly married couples learned to cope with the difficulties of married life by working with trained counselors. Nearly 6,000 people completed the program, his wife said, with only a 9% divorce rate.

“He brought a measure of Jewish culture into this community which it had not yet seen,” his wife said. “When he came, he had to initiate everything.”

In addition to his wife, Wise is survived by a daughter, Tamar Wise of Berkeley; a son, Rabbi Yitshok Etshalom of Los Angeles; two brothers, Sol Wise and Isadore Wise, both of Cincinnati, and four grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. today at the synagogue, 12020 Burbank Blvd. Burial will follow at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park.

Minha and Maariv, daily afternoon and evening services, will begin at 7:45 tonight at the family home and continue until Tuesday, with daily Shaharit services at 7 a.m. at the residence.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be sent to the Aaron M. Wise Scholar-in-Residence Fund or the Hesed Fund at Adat Ari El, or Making Marriage Work or the Masorti Movement, both in care of the University of Judaism, 15600 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles 90077, or the Yeshivat Har Ezion Foundation, Suite 1000, 160 Broadway, New York, N. Y. 10038.