Seymour Siegel

The prayerbook—the first new translation of a Jewish prayerbook into Spanish since the original Spanish translation had appeared in Ferrara, Italy, in 1552—was a project of the Latin American office of the World Council of Synagogues.

Among other Spanish publications of the council was a translation of The Jewish Dietary Laws, written by Siegel and his colleague, Rabbi Samuel Dresner.

Seymour Siegel (September 12, 1927 - February 24, 1988), often referred to as "an architect of Conservative Jewish theology," was an American Conservative rabbi, a Professor of Ethics and Theology at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS), the 1983-1984 Executive Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council," and an advisor to three American presidents, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan.

Siegel was associated with JTS for 41 years, first as a student and later as an instructor, holding the Ralph Simon Professor of Ethics and Theology chair, succeeding his friend and mentor, Abraham Joshua Heschel, in that position.

In 1951, JTS chancellor Louis Finkelstein arranged for Martin Buber to make his first trip to the U.S., for a six-month lecture tour.

Finkelstein appointed Siegel to act as the host for Buber and his wife, Pauline, during their time at JTS.

Siegel met them at Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) on Nov 1, 1951.

Twenty four years later, at the memorial service held for Buber in New York, Siegel would be one of three speakers, including Protestant theologian, Paul Tillich.

Seymour Siegel was born in Chicago, Illinois, attending the University of Chicago (B.A., 1958) and the Hebrew Theological College for undergraduate studies, then earning rabbinic ordination, and both a Masters and Doctorate in Hebrew Literature at JTS (M.A., 1951; DHL, 1960), in New York City.

He remained at JTS, as a Professor of Theology and Ethics, and over the years, held other positions for varying amounts of time, including Dean of Students ("Registrar") for the Rabbinical School, and assistant dean of the Herbert H. Lehman Institute of Ethics.

He taught Holocaust studies in the mid-1960s, well before it was considered a field of serious study, and he was a pioneer in the field of medical ethics in particular, and religious ethics in general.

He believed that teaching should not be confined to the classroom, and shared Heschel's "conviction that the Jews had a vision of society which could and should influence general society as much as the general society influenced Judaism.".

Putting these beliefs into practice, he became one of the first ethical advisors to American commercial corporations, chairing the ethics committee of the public relations firm, Ruder Finn and serving on the Biohazards Committee of the giant pharmaceutical concern, Hoffmann-La Roche.

As part of this position, he worked on guidelines in recombinant DNA research.

"Siegel felt a tremendous responsibility, in his role as a Professor of Ethics and Theology at the Jewish Theological Seminary, to be both a general public servant serving the public of the United States of America from his understanding of the teachings of Judaism and at the same time a servant to the Jewish people in his role as the chairman of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinic Assembly."

The well-known scholar Jacob Neusner recalls that Siegel was his "best Talmud teacher" at JTS., and a generation of rabbis praised Siegel's "full control" of the broad range of classical Jewish texts, ranging from Talmud, to Jewish law, to Jewish mysticism, along with his ability to explain difficult issues in clear and straightforward ways.

He was called "the most versatile and well-rounded scholar at the Jewish Theological Seminary."

During the 1960s, when there was heated debate among rabbis, including those in the RA, about whether or not to engage in Jewish-Christian dialogue, Siegel was a strong voice for its importance, stating flatly that "we must have dialogue."

In addition, he was one of the first rabbis to teach at Christian seminaries.

In 1962, Siegel helped found the Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano, Latin American Rabbinical Seminary, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and "was instrumental in consolidating the relationship" between that seminary and JTS, in NY, by spending summers there, teaching courses in Talmud, theology, and ethics.

At a news conference after a ten-week trip to Buenos Aires to help set up the Seminary, he spoke out about the fear of the Argentinian Jewish community regarding the antisemitism it faced.

He said that "...reliable sources say that [the Argentinian] Government officials know who perpetrate the anti-Semitic attacks and yet they have not taken any steps to arrest them."

He urged the U.S. government to do whatever it could to strengthen democratic institutions in Argentina, and expressed his concern that the Roman Catholic Church there had taken no official stand against anti-semitic attacks.

"The rabbi, who said he had witnessed the machine-gunning of an Israeli shipping line while he was in Buenos Aires, said that such attacks were a recurrence of anti-Semitic acts that date back more than thirty years."

Siegel was fluent in Spanish, and during some New York political campaigns, delivered speeches in Spanish to Hispanic groups on New York's Upper West Side.

In 1965, when a Spanish-language Conservative prayerbook was printed for Argentina and other countries in Latin America, one of Siegel's prayers—for the Jewish festival of Sukkot, Tabernacles—was included.

In 1967, when the debate about interfaith dialogue had reached new heights, with some rabbis taking the position that it might be appropriate for Christian and Jewish leaders to discuss issues of "social justice," but not "theology," Siegel once again took a strong position in favor of religious dialogue.

He wrote that such dialogue "is imperative today in a world whose vexatious problems are of immediate urgency to Christians and Jews alike," that it would be impossible to come together for discussions about social problems "in depth, without getting down to religion"—and, more than that, that it would be "ludicrous for religious leaders to meet for the purpose of discussing all subjects except The One in which they are most expert -- religion."

He was an outspoken champion of political conservatism, delivering a prayer at the 1973 second term inauguration of President Richard Nixon, but just as strong a champion of religious causes sometimes associated with liberalism, such as the ordination of female rabbis.

In his obituary, New York Times religion writer, Ari L. Goldman, wrote that the writings of Seymour Siegel "helped open the door for the ordination of female rabbis" in the Conservative movement.

From 1973-1980, he served as chair of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly (RA).

In addition to his positions at JTS, and his work with the RA, Siegel served as a visiting senior research fellow at the Kennedy Institute for Bioethics at Georgetown University (1976–1977); a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (1981), in Washington, DC; a Hastings Center Fellow; and a Fellow for the Society of Religion in Higher Education.

He also served, 1982–1983, as the only cleric on the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical Research, appointed to that Commission by President Ronald Reagan.

In addition, Siegel served on the boards of directors of numerous organizations, including the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) and the Jewish Publication Society (JPS), and on the editorial boards of many journals and periodicals, including This World and Conservative Judaism.

Later, in 1984, after Jewish-Christian dialogue had developed in many circles, Siegel, ahead of his time, said that he hoped that such dialogue would grow to include Islam—and even more, that the so-called "Western religions" of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which were for the most part "woefully ignorant" of other religions in the world, including those in Asia and Africa, could develop opportunities to come together in dialogue, as well.

Siegel said that, while religion was often a force in war, in could be a force for peace for two primary reasons: first, because it could keep alive the vision of the prophets of a time of future peace; and second, because religion could bring with it a vision that transcended national borders and races, so that it became possible to identify with others as "persons."

On the other hand, while he was a strong advocate of interfaith dialogue and cooperation, he cautioned against underestimating or blurring the differences among religions.

He also served on the Commission on the Ideology of Conservative Judaism—later renamed, The Commission on the Philosophy of Conservative Judaism—that produced the 1988 document, Emet Ve'Emunah: Statement of Principles of Conservative Judaism.

Siegel grew up in a "close-knit Yiddish family and community," with "his yeshiva education preparing him to be an orthodox rabbi or Talmudic scholar. But after graduating from the University of Chicago, he gravitated toward the Conservative movement. There, his friends, Samuel Dresner and Wolfe Kelman, urged him to study with Heschel."

As a teacher, Siegel was ahead of his time in many ways.