Background
He was born in 1942 in Velizh, Russia.
He was born in 1942 in Velizh, Russia.
After receiving ordination from Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1941 he served as Rabbi and Senior Rabbi of Shaare Torah of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1942–2004), President of the Rabbinical Council of Pittsburgh (1949–1999) and was one of the original founders of the Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh. Rabbi Poupko's doctoral thesis, completed at the University of Pittsburgh, "traces the history and status of Jewish religious adult education, analyzing the various emphases in curriculum of the three major religious ideologies.". (American Jewish Year Book Volume
66 (1965) 281)
Rabbi Poupko edited and co-edited 38 sermon volumes of the Rabbinical Council of America, including the scholarly Anglo-Hebrew volume Eidenu in memory of the founder and first president of Yeshiva University, Doctor Bernard Revel, the volumes in honor of Chief Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, and the Centennial of YU, and Doctor Norman Lamm's 20th anniversary as President of YU.
Rabbi Poupko served as the National Vice President of the Rabbinical Council of America and as the National President of the Religious Zionists of America.