JRabbi Monty Eliasov z”l. Courtesy: Barbara Taft  

By Abraham Davidson  

Rabbi Arnold Montgomery Eliasov ( z”l), affectionately known as “Rabbi Monty,” passed away peacefully on Shabbat, July 20, 2024, after a sudden illness. In his final hours, he was surrounded by friends and loved ones who came from near and far to hold his hand and to bid him a tearful farewell. He was 78 years old.  

Rabbi Monty was born on June 23, 1946, in the seaside city of Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. He grew up there and in the deeply rural environments of the Eastern Cape. He was born into, as he described them,” an amazing Litvak family, comprised of both Jewish merchants and Jewish farmers.” Some 90% of South Africa’s Jewish population is estimated to be of Litvak heritage, that is, they trace their origins to the Jewish communities of the Baltic State of Lithuania.  

Since from an early age young Monty proved to be a precocious Torah scholar, his family sent him to the United States at the age of 16 to enter the Telshe Yeshiva Talmudic Academy in Wicliffe, Ohio, where he studied for almost 4 years. This yeshiva was transplanted from Telshe, Lithuania to Ohio during World War II, when the original Academy was shut down by the Soviets.   

After completing his studies at the Telshe Yeshiva, Rabbi Monty went to New York, where he earned a BA in Economics from Yeshiva University and a master’s degree in Judaic Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He served for many years as religious education director in both Conservative and Reform synagogue schools. He later was drawn to the teachings of Reb Zalman Schacter- Shalomi, founder of Jewish Renewal, and studied Kabbalah and neo-Chasidic prayer forms with him in Boulder, Colorado.  

Rabbi Monty received rabbinic ordination in 1998 from Rabbi Gershon Winkler, who was director of The Walking Stick Institute and the author of many books of Jewish interest. In March 2000, after several years as its Education Director, Rabbi Monty was installed as Rabbi for Congregation Shalom Rav, an Austin Reconstructionist Congregation, to which he brought a Jewish Renewal perspective. It was a position he was to hold for 21 years.  

Rabbi Monty believed fervently in the spirit of Isaiah 57:7-8, which states, “For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.” He worked diligently to bring all those who in former times may have dwelt on the fringes, into his house of prayer: converts, people in the LGBTQ community, people seeking interfaith marriages; all were welcomed by Rabbi Monty. In fact, he was the first Rabbi in Austin to perform interfaith marriages.  

The core of Rabbi Monty’s innovative teachings was developed in a unique pathway called “Twelve Tribe Torah”, which he believed consciously integrated all of the diverse streams of the Judaism which existed in the first century, C.E.  

Rabbi Monty will be remembered as one deeply devoted to Torah learning, yet who always had time to help those who sought his counsel.  

He was preceded in death by his father, Ralph Eliasov, and his mother, Lily Frank Eliasov of Port Elizabeth, South Africa and he is survived by his sister, Geisha Horowitz, of Florida.  

Rabbi Monty was laid to rest in the peaceful surroundings of Eloise Woods near Austin, Texas. The graveside service was led by Rabbi Alan Freedman, Emeritus, Temple Beth Shalom, and assisted by Rabbi Monty’s longtime talmid, Joshua Blaine.