Harold M. Schulweis

Harold M. Schulweis
Born	April 14, 1925 The Bronx, New York City
Died	December 18, 2014 Encino, California
Cause of death	heart disease
Education	Yeshiva University Jewish Theological Seminary New York University Pacific School of Religion
Occupation	Rabbi

Harold M. Schulweis (April 14, 1925 – December 18, 2014) was an American rabbi and author. He was the longtime spiritual Leader at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California.

Biography

Schulweis was born in Bronx, New York in 1925 to secular parents who respected Zionism and Jewish traditions. His father was an editor of the The Jewish Daily Forward. His early Jewish education was influenced by his grandfather, Rabbi Avraham Rezak, who introduced him to the Talmud. In 1945, Schulweis graduated Yeshiva University with a degree in philosophy. Later Schulweis enrolled in the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he studied under Mordecai Kaplan and Abraham Joshua Heschel. Schulweis also studied philosophy at New York University, where he met his wife Malkah. He received a doctorate in theology from the Pacific School of Religion.

Rabbinical career

Schulweis's first pulpit was Temple Beth Abraham, a Conservative Jewish congregation in Oakland, California in 1952. Among the innovations he introduced was the inclusion of women in minyanim and bat mitzvah ceremonies for girls. Instead of sermons, he used the allotted time for questions and answers. Schulweis has been criticized by the religious right for his interfaith and conversion programs, and open inclusion of homosexuals. Rabbi Meir Kahane criticized Schulweis for allowing a pro-PLO Arab Knesset member to speak at his synagogue, while refusing to extend the same opportunity to Kahane, who was also a Knesset member at the time. Newsweek magazine called him "the leading Conservative rabbi of his generation" and placed him 13th on their list of the Top 50 Rabbis in America. Though he is affiliated with the Conservative Movement he is considered a leading authority and theologian of Reconstructionist Judaism today.

Human rights and Jewish activism

Schulweis founded the Jewish World Watch, a human rights watch group. He was instrumental in the creation of the Chavurah movement in the late 1960s. Schulweis served as technical advisor for Judaism-themed episodes of The Simpsons.

In 1986, Schulweis established the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR) (originally called the Institute for Righteous Acts) to fulfill the traditional Jewish commitment to hakarat hatov, the searching out and recognition of goodness, by assisting Righteous Gentiles who are in need. The JFR started out funding eight rescuers, and that number quickly grew, reaching 1,750. Currently, the JFR supports more than 850 aged and needy rescuers in 23 countries. The Foundation also pursues a national Holocaust education program. The goal of the program is to educate middle and high school teachers about the history of the Holocaust and to provide them with the resources to integrate this knowledge into their classrooms.

Death

Schulweis had heart disease for many years, and died at his home in Encino, California on December 18, 2014. He was 89.

Published works

• Evil and the Morality of God, (1983)
• In God's Mirror: Reflections and Essays, (1990)
• For Those Who Can't Believe: Overcoming the Obstacles to Faith, (1994)
• Meditations and Prayers for the Renewal of the Body and the Renewal of the Spirit, (2000)
• Finding Each Other in Judaism: Meditations on the Rites of Passage from Birth to Immortality, (2001)
• When You Lie Down and When You Rise Up: Nightstand Meditations, (2001)
• Conscience: The Duty to Obey and the Duty to Disobey, (2008)

Articles

• We Dare Not Murder Memories of Genocide

Articles in Sh'ma Magazine

• Hope and Faith (2004)
• Confronting the Angel of Death (1996)
• When Lucy Cohen's Mother Is Not Jewish (1994)
• If I Were an Orthodox Rabbi (1989)
• Jewish Isolation After the Holocaust (1988)
• Polarizing Movements-and Our People (1985)
• The Limits of Spero's Argument (1983)
• When Ethics and Halacha Collide (1979)
• We Need Women Conservative Rabbis (1979)
• When Dissent is Not a Virtue (1976)

Full list on BJPA.org

See also

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers

External links

• Jewish World Watch