Rabbi is the term in Judaism for a religious teacher. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ‘great’ in many senses, including "revered." The word comes from the Semitic root R-B-B, and is cognate to Arabic ربّ rabb, meaning "lord" Rabbi ' onMouseout='HidePop("92878")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Conservative_Judaism">Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.The principles of Conservative Judaism include:* A deliberately non-fundamentalist teaching of Jewish...
.
Personal life, education, and career
Klein was born in Hungary and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1921. He earned a BA from City College in New York in 1931. Although nearing ordination at the
Yeshiva UniversityYeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is classified as a very high research activity university and it ranked as 50th in the US among national universities by U.S...
's
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological SeminaryRabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary , or Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan, is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University, located in Washington Heights, New York...
, he transferred to the
Jewish Theological Seminary of AmericaThe Jewish Theological Seminary of America is the academic and spiritual center of Conservative Judaism.The Jewish Theological Seminary operates five schools: Albert A...
(JTSA), where he was ordained in 1934 and received the advanced Jewish legal degree of
Hattarat Hora’ah under the great talmudic scholar Rabbi Professor
Louis GinzbergRabbi Louis Ginzberg was a Talmudist of the twentieth century. He was born on November 28, 1873, in Kovno, Lithuania; he died on November 11, 1953, in New York City.-Biographical background :...
. He was one of only three people, along with Boaz Cohen and
Louis FinkelsteinRabbi Louis Finkelstein was a Talmud scholar and expert in Jewish law. He taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the first American seminary of Conservative Judaism....
, to ever to receive this degree from JTSA. Klein subsequently earned a PhD from Harvard under the pioneering academic of Judaic studies Harry Wolfson.
He married the former Henriette Levine in 1932 and had three daughters, Hannah, Miriam, and Rivke. Devoted to his family, he dedicated his major work,
A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice to his children, sons-in-law and 13 grandchildren listing each by name.
Klein served as rabbi at Kadimoh Congregation in Springfield, Massachusetts from 1934-1953; Temple Emanu-El, Buffalo, New York, 1953-1968; Temple Shaarey Zedek, Buffalo, (which was created from the merger of Emanu-El with Temple Beth David in 1968), 1968-1972. A beloved Rabbi, he influenced generations of congregants and visiting students and, together with his wife who was an educator, founded Jewish day schools in both Springfield and Buffalo.
Despite the difficulties facing a congregational Rabbi raising a family, Klein volunteered for the U.S. Army during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as a chaplain, motivated by a cause he saw as clearly right with important implications for the Jewish People. He served over 4 years, rising to the rank of Major and was an advisor to the high commissioner of the Occupation government. He also served on special assignments for Jewish soldiers in the U.S. Army in the 1950s, receiving the simulated rank of Brigadier General for these missions. His experiences in the war are described in his book
The Anguish and the Ecstacy of a Jewish Chaplain.
Role within Conservative Judaism
Klein was a leader of the right-wing of the Conservative movement. He was president of the
Rabbinical AssemblyThe Rabbinical Assembly is the international association of Conservative rabbis. The RA was founded in 1901 to shape the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement. It publishes prayerbooks and books of Jewish interest, and oversees the work of the Committee on Jewish Law and...
, 1958-1960, and a member of its Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, 1948-1979. He was the author of several books, notably,
A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice. One of the outstanding halakhists of the movement, he served as a leading member of the
Committee on Jewish Law and StandardsThe Committee on Jewish Law and Standards is the central authority on halakha within Conservative Judaism; it is one of the most active and widely known committees on the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly. Within the movement it is known as the CJLS...
from 1948 until his death in 1979.
As a leading authority on
halakhaHalakha — also transliterated Halocho and Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
he authored many important
teshuvot (responsa)Responsa comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them.-In the Roman Catholic Church:...
, many of which were published in his influential "
ResponsaResponsa comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them.-In the Roman Catholic Church:...
and Halakhic Studies". From the 1950s to 1970s, he wrote a comprehensive guide to
Jewish lawHalakha — also transliterated Halocho and Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
which was used to teach halakha at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. In 1979 he assembled this into
A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice, which is used widely by laypeople and rabbis within
Conservative JudaismConservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.The principles of Conservative Judaism include:* A deliberately non-fundamentalist teaching of Jewish...
.
Rabbinic thought
The philosophy upon which
A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice is written is stated in the foreword: "The premise on which Torah is based is that all aspects of life - leisure no less than business, worship or rites of passage (birth, bar mitzvah, marriage, divorce, death) - are part of the covenant and mandate under which every Jew is to serve God in everything he does. In the eyes of Torah there is, strictly speaking, no such thing as the purely private domain, for even in solitude - be it the privacy of the bath or the unconsciousness of sleep - one has the capacity and the duty to serve God." This message, of life seen in consonance with the dictates of Judaism, permeates many pages of the book. Rabbi
Louis FinkelsteinRabbi Louis Finkelstein was a Talmud scholar and expert in Jewish law. He taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the first American seminary of Conservative Judaism....
, distinguished scholar of the Jewish Theological Seminary, wrote: "There are those who would think that we have but two alternatives, to reject or to accept the law, but in either case to treat it as a dead letter. Both of these alternatives are repugnant to the whole tradition of Judaism. Jewish law must be preserved but it is subject to interpretation by those who have mastered it, and the interpretation placed upon it by duly authorized masters in every generation must be accepted with as much reverence as those which were given in previous generations."
This understanding of traditional preservation of the law through its continuous interpretation lies at the heart of Klein's extensive study of Jewish law.
Klein's papers are located at the University Archives, State University of New York at Buffalo (see
finding aid). The archives include fifteen reels of microfilm. The collection consists of extensive writings by Klein on traditional Jewish practice and law. This includes manuscript material for his books
Guide to Jewish Religious Practice (1979),
The Ten Commandments in a Changing World (1963),
The Anguish and the Ecstasy of a Jewish Chaplain (1974), and his translation of
The Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah): Book 7, The Book of Agriculture (1979). The collection also contains speeches, sermons, articles, and remarks from the Conservative Jewish viewpoint on subjects such as
Jewish medical ethicsJewish medical ethics is a modern scholarly and clinical approach to medical ethics that draws upon Jewish thought and teachings. Pioneered by Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits in the 1950s, Jewish medical ethics centers mainly around an applied ethics drawing upon traditional rabbinic law...
,
dietary lawsKashrut is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér , meaning "fit"...
, adoption, and marriage and divorce. Meeting minutes, annual reports, bulletins, and sermons relating to Klein's rabbinical vocations in Springfield, Massachusetts and Buffalo, New York are also included. The papers contain photographs, wartime letters, and military records of Klein documenting his service in World War II as a director of Jewish religious affairs in Germany.
External links