Theodore Friedman

Theodore Tuvia Zvi Friedman (January 11, 1908 – December 18, 1992) was an American and Israeli conservative rabbi, spiritual leader, and author.

Born in Stamford, Connecticut, United States, on January 11, 1908, to Chaim Zvi Harry (Wilkemerski) and Anna Kapit (Kapetulsky) Friedman.

His parents immigrated to the United States from Lithuania (father) and from Russia (mother).

He graduated from the City College of New York (1929).

In 1931 he was ordained a rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he served as an associate professor.

Friedman served the Beit El Congregation in northern Bergen, New Jersey (1931–1942), Beit David Congregation in Buffalo, N.Y (1942–1944), the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City (1944–1954), where he founded a Hebrew high school.

Friedman also chaired the Rabbinical Assembly's Hebrew Culture Committee (1944–46) and was President of the Long Island Region of the Rabbinical Assembly (1947).

In 1948 he presented to the Rabbinical Assembly's annual convention, "Towards a Philosophy of Conservative Judaism", one of the key position papers, which led to the reorganization of the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law into the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly (CJLS).

Here he effectively argued for going beyond Halakha in addressing the many problems of Jewish life.

Friedman chaired the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards from 1951 until 1954 and wrote many decisions, including on family issues, divorce, and Agunah.

Friedman co-chaired the Steering Committee and was secretary of its national Bet Din.

He earned a PhD from Columbia University in 1952.

In 1954 Friedman became rabbi of Congregation Beth El, South Orange, New Jersey (1954–1970).

Friedman was an authority in Jewish education and a member of the Board of Governors of the National Academy of Adult Jewish Studies; he organized an innovative adult education program at Beth El based on a four-year curriculum that he designed.

As Vice-president of the Rabbinical Assembly (1960–62), he led the committee that revised its constitution.

From 1962 to 1964, he served as the president of The Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis.

During his tenure, he supported the African-American Civil Rights Movement.

Friedman headed The Rabbinical Assembly as president from 1962 until 1964.

In addition to his work on behalf of the Rabbinical Assembly, he taught homiletics at the Seminary and was a member of the Jewish Book Council of America.

Friedman taught at the Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano (Latin American Rabbinical Seminary, also known as the Marshall T. Meyer Latin American Rabbinical Seminary, named for Friedman's son-in-law rabbi Marshall Meyer), a Jewish religious, cultural, and academic center in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

While the Rabbinical Assembly convention was in session in May 1963, Martin Luther King Jr.

led demonstrations against police brutality in Birmingham, Alabama.

During the convention, the call was sounded that a group of rabbis should go to Birmingham as representatives of the Rabbinical Assembly and demonstrate solidarity with the cause.

At an earlier session on the second day of that convention, the question was raised about how spiritual leaders could be concerned only with Nazi cruelty when acts of injustice to fellow human beings were taking place in the USA.

Rabbi Friedman was among the decision-maker that sent a delegation of 19 rabbis to protest against police violence in Birmingham, Alabama.

In presenting the resolution to send a delegation, Rabbi Friedman stressed that their presence was "urgent and of great importance."

After the vote endorsing the resolution, Rabbi Friedman noted: "You go not only with our official endorsement to speak and act in our name, but you go with our heartfelt blessings and prayers. I want you to go feeling that we have not merely passed a resolution. You are our shlihim. We want you to go in that spirit...".

As the Rabbinical Assembly's president, he worked to build bridges with the other Jewish denominations.

He called upon his fellow rabbis to speak from their pulpits to encourage their congregants to embrace the causes of civil rights and Soviet Jewry.

Friedman was one of the pioneering supporters of the Soviet Jewry Movement.

In 1970 Friedman immigrated to Israel upon his retirement from the active rabbinate.

Following his retirement in 1970, he was elected Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Beth El, South Orange.

Since his aliya, he held a leadership role in the Israeli branch of the Rabbinical Assembly.

From 1970 to 1973, Friedman served on the Executive Council of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem.

Friedman taught at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies and was its first head of Va'ad Halakhah, founded in 1985 by the Rabbinical Assembly of Israel.

The Va'ad Halakhah addressed halakhic questions from Israel and Europe in Hebrew.

Friedman died in Jerusalem, where he lived, on December 18, 1992.

Friedman played a leading role in guiding the Rabbinical Assembly as it expanded in new directions in post-World War II.

Rabbi Friedman presided over the Rabbinical Assembly when it took the most significant social action stand in its history.

During his tenure as President of the Rabbinical Assembly, he supported the African-American Civil Rights Movement.