GREENBERG, SIMON

GREENBERG, SIMON (1901–1993), U.S. rabbi and educator. Greenberg, who was born in Russia, moved with his parents to the U.S. in 1905. He attended the Teacher's Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary (1919) and earned his B.A. at City College of New York (1922). He was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1925. From 1925 to 1946 Greenberg was rabbi of Har Zion Temple, Philadelphia, Pa., building it into one of the leading synagogues of the Conservative movement, a legacy that has endured. It was a point of pride at Har Zion that the lay leaders were knowledgeable and could lead services. He was also a leader in the Philadelphia community, a founder and director of the Philadelphia Psychiatric Hospital, president of the Philadelphia Zionist Organization of America, and a founder of the Akiva Day School, a Hebrew-speaking Jewish high school. He was president of the Rabbinical Assembly of America (1937–39), where he linked the three branches of the Conservative movement – the congregations, the Seminary, and the Rabbinical Assembly in joint fundraising efforts, which led to the Joint Campaign for Conservative Judaism. All the while he taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary (1932–68). He then returned to the Seminary to serve as provost (1946–51), executive director of the United Synagogue (1950–53). He was appointed professor of homiletics and education in 1948 and vice chancellor in 1957, and was sent on behalf of the Seminary to establish the West Coast campus of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the University of Judaism in Los Angeles where he was president (1955–63), chancellor, and then chancellor emeritus. One of Conservative Judaism's most articulate spokesmen, Greenberg stressed the centrality of the Jewish people, the importance of Zionism and Hebrew, the religious character of American civilization, and the importance of Hebrew in Jewish education. He was also one of the movement's most important educators, working to shape its thought and educational goals. Greenberg was a member of the Jewish Agency Executive, president of the Rabbinical Assembly of America, and a leader of the World Council on Jewish Education. Greenberg's numerous writings include Living as a Jew Today (1940), Ideals and Values of the Prayer Book (1940), The First Year in the Hebrew School: A Teacher's Guide (1946), Foundations of a Faith (1967), Words of Poetry (1970), and a series of brochures on the Conservative movement in Judaism. He also compiled the Harishon series of Hebrew textbooks. In his eighties he made aliyah and served as the first executive director of the Conservative (Masorati) movement in Israel.

add. bibliography:

M. Sklare, Conservative Judaism (1955), 144, 274–75; P.S. Nadell, Conservative Judaism in America: A Bibliographical Dictionary and Sourcebook (1988).

[Jack Reimer /

Michael Berenbaum (2^nd ed.)]