Jaffe, Maurice Abraham

views updated

JAFFE, MAURICE ABRAHAM

JAFFE, MAURICE ABRAHAM (1917–1985), Israeli communal worker. Jaffe was born in Manchester and studied at the local yeshivah and at Manchester University, where he graduated in law (LL.B.) with honors in Public International Law. After serving as rabbi of the North Manchester Synagogue, he served as chaplain in the British army during World War ii, serving inter alia as Jewish chaplain to the Allied Land Forces in Southeast Asia (1944) and senior Jewish chaplain to the British Forces in Europe (1946).

Jaffe immigrated to Israel in 1948 where he was appointed director of overseas relations of the World Mizrachi in 1949.

In 1952 he was appointed honorary executive director of the Hechal Shlomo Building Committee and became at present its executive chairman. Jaffe was chairman of the Building Committee of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue. In July 1977 he became a member of the Board of Governors of the World Jewish Congress and of the Executive of the World Zionist Organization. He received his Ph.D. from the Midwestern University, Indianapolis in 1969.