In being the first family member to speak at his father’s funeral, Peter Kaplan said he couldn’t name Elliot Kaplan’s favorite song or favorite television show. But everyone at Temple Israel on Sunday afternoon could name the Kaplan family patriarch’s favorite food: A White Castle slider.
“In the last year or so, when he was still driving, we had a GPS tracker on his car, and we would get alerts,” Peter Kaplan said. “If he went left [out of the neighborhood], it was to White Castle. I knew the route, I can visualize what that image looks like, and it was usually three or four times a week.
“So that got me thinking: How are White Castle sliders like our family? And the only thing I could come up with is that Elliot could never have enough. Nothing mattered more to Elliot than his family.”
The Kaplan Family.
Kaplan, a giant of the Minnesota Jewish community and Minnesota legal community, passed away on Jan. 14. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Eloise Stillman Kaplan; parents, Gertrude and Nathan Kaplan; grandson Alex; and his first wife, Sheila Kaplan. He is survived by his children, Jane (David) Kirshbaum, Cindy Kaplan (Dr. Marc Weisskopf), Peter (Jessica) Kaplan, Jed (Debbie) Stillman, and Scott Stillman; grandchildren, Abby (Jeremiah), Zoe, Noah (Stephanie), Mira, Micah, Daryn, Asher, Sophie (Josh), Sam, Grace “Gigi,” Max (Meghna), and Ezra; brother, Howard (Diane) Kaplan; brother-in-law, Bill Schmitzer; sister-in-law, Pennie Shapiro; and nieces and nephews, Josh (Jenny Roosa) Kaplan, Seth (Rory) Kaplan, David (Marci) Kaplan, Beth Shapiro (Scott Boscapomi), and Dan (Nikki) Shapiro.
Abby Schmulewitz, the oldest of the 12 grandchildren, said that among the many things her grandfather had given her, the most important were the values of a Jewish life, a good education, and family.
“As I was reflecting on these three values, I realized that not only did I generally inherit these values, but I had fully lived out these values in my professional career,” said Schmulewitz, who is the new director of admissions at Smith Jewish Academy and had previously worked at Minnesota Hillel and Temple Israel. “It’s most definitely not a coincidence, and it’s most definitely a true understanding of Papa’s lessons and values, living a Jewish life and incorporating Judaism into all we do was of high importance to Papa.”
Kaplan had been a past president at Temple Israel, as had his brother, Howard, and stepson, Jed Stillman.
“Whenever I walked through the halls of Temple as a kid or a staff member, I loved and took such pride in seeing my Papa’s and other family members’ portraits up on the wall as a former board president,” Schmulewitz said.
Temple Israel Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman said that while Kaplan was a force of nature, he never forgot where he came from – the son of a St. Paul grocery store owner who started working at the age of 8, before going to the University of Minnesota for his undergraduate and law school degrees.
“The combination was his ability to sit around a table with senators, congressmen, leaders in high places, and skip through a parking lot and jump up and down and do a little dance, because he always understood what it meant to be human,” Zimmerman said. “He would leave a quarter at every grandchild’s Shabbat seat to put in a pushke. He taught you how to do it. He didn’t just say it. He taught you how and what it meant and the sacrifice it took.”
Debbie Stillman, Kaplan’s daughter-in-law, said when the pushke was full, everyone got a say in where the donations were going to be made.
“They established, for the kids and grandkids, good habits and understanding the mechanics of philanthropy and thinking through where to donate,” she said.
Stillman said that both Elliot and Eloise, who passed away in December 2024, were passionate about Jewish education and education in general. There are scholarships in their names at the University of Minnesota Law School and School of Social Work, respectively.
Zimmerman said that when he was board president, Kaplan and others made sure the synagogue stayed in Minneapolis and didn’t “escape to some other place.”
“Our address is our mission and vision, not just our geography,” Zimmerman said. “No one could have predicted what’s happening here, in our city, in our state, but Elliot knew we had to have a voice. Elliot knew we needed to be on the ground. Elliot knew that we were going to be the leaders. If he knew what was happening, he would be devastated by the obstruction and destruction of justice.
“Elliot respected the law not because it was gentle. Law isn’t gentle. It’s because it is powerful and indifferent to callousness, and that’s what this man lived by, and that’s what gives me courage to do what we need to do.”
Kaplan was a longtime partner and chairman of the law firm Robins Kaplan. In the mid-90s, when the firm was Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Cirisi, the firm helped secure a landmark $6.5 billion settlement in a suit against the American tobacco industry.
Mike Cirisi, a long-time friend and partner of Kaplan’s, directed much of his eulogy to Kaplan’s grandchildren.
“If you grow up and live your lives in his image, you have lived an accomplished life of purpose,” Cirisi said. “Elliot and I shared extraordinary times together with our families and practicing the profession that we both loved intensely throughout his life and brilliant career. Elliot held steadfast the core values of caring for others in an unyielding determination to advance the cause of social justice.
“He was, as we Sicilians say, a true mensch.”
Steve Schumeister, another of Kaplan’s legal partners, said he and Cirisi exchanged texts and emails of their stories, and then they’d cry from the laughter – and realized they couldn’t actually tell them from the bimah at Temple Israel.
“Legendary, father, grandfather, attorney and community leader. He was a giant in the community,” Schumeister said. “And it’s true in terms of Temple, Israel, our firm, Hillel, University of Minnesota, University of Minnesota Law School, education, human services,” he said. “Elliot and [Eloise] were true community leaders.”
Debbie Stillman said Kaplan was the chair of campaigns that raised, in total, about a quarter of a billion dollars for causes in the Jewish community and the community in general.
“We were incredibly blessed and lucky to not just have their influence, but the experiences they architected for us,” Debbie Stillman said. “You could put any two of the 25 (kids and grandkids) together and we’d have fun. They built that and it’s intentional. Not every blended family does that. They set the standard.”
Peter Kaplan said that while on large family vacations, while Elliot wasn’t going to be zip-lining or going on ATV rides with the grandkids, large – and mandatory – family dinners were to be had for Elliot and Eloise to be debriefed.
“[They would] talk about their philosophies on life, or learn about what their grandchildren were growing up to be, which, by the way, includes everything from leaders in the Jewish community to lawyers, soldiers, business leaders, social justice advocates, comedians, and a future firefighter,” Peter Kaplan said. “Each trip brought us all back together, kept us grounded, and cemented Papa’s legacy.
“So papa is gone, but boy, did he leave his mark.”
There will be a shiva at Elliot Kaplan’s residence on Monday, Jan. 19, at 7 p.m.