Harold Maurice Schulweis

Background

Schulweis was born in Bronx, New York in 1925 to secular parents who respected Zionism and Jewish traditions. His father was an editor of the The Jewish Daily Forward.

Education

In 1945, Schulweis graduated Yeshiva University with a degree in philosophy. Later Schulweis enrolled in the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he studied under Mordecai Kaplan and Abraham Joshua Heschel. Schulweis also studied philosophy at New York University, where he met his wife Malkah.

Career

He was the longtime spiritual Leader at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California. He received a doctorate in theology from the Pacific School of Religion. Schulweis"s first pulpit was Temple Beth Abraham, a Conservative Jewish congregation in Oakland, California in 1952.

Among the innovations he introduced was the inclusion of women in minyanim and bat mitzvah ceremonies for girls.

Instead of sermons, he used the allotted time for questions and answers. Schulweis has been criticized by the religious right for his interfaith and conversion programs, and open inclusion of homosexuals.

Rabbi Meir Kahane criticized Schulweis for allowing a pro-PLO Arab Knesset member to speak at his synagogue, while refusing to extend the same opportunity to Kahane, who was also a Knesset member at the time. Newsweek magazine called him "the leading Conservative rabbi of his generation" and placed him 13th on their list of the Top 50 Rabbis in America.

Schulweis founded the Jewish World Watch, a human rights watch group.

He was instrumental in the creation of the Chavurah movement in the late 1960s. In 1986, Schulweis established the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (JFR) (originally called the Institute for Righteous Acts) to fulfill the traditional Jewish commitment to hakarat hatov, the searching out and recognition of goodness, by assisting Righteous Gentiles who are in need. The JFR started out funding eight rescuers, and that number quickly grew, reaching 1,750.

Currently, the JFR supports more than 850 aged and needy rescuers in 23 countries.

The Foundation also pursues a national Holocaust education program The goal of the program is to educate middle and high school teachers about the history of the Holocaust and to provide them with the resources to integrate this knowledge into their classrooms.

Schulweis had heart disease for many years, and died at his home in Encino, California on December 18, 2014. He was 89.

Achievements

• Harold Maurice Schulweis has been listed as a noteworthy rabbi by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Conscience: The Duty to Obey and the Duty to Disobey

    ( A Profound and Stirring Call to Action in Our Troubled ...)

  • Evil and the Morality of God

    (Book by Schulweis, Harold M.)

  • Finding Each Other in Judaism: Meditations on the Rites of Passage from Birth to Immortality

    (Formerly a URJ Press title. Drawing from both traditional...)

  • Evil and the Morality of God by Harold M. Schulweis (2010-05-30)
  • Finding Each Other in Judaism: Meditations on the Rites of Passage from Birth to Immortality by Harold M. Schulweis (2001-05-01)

Membership

Founder Institute for the Righteous Arts, Judah Magnes Museum, Berkeley, California, 1961. Founder, chairman Institute for Righteous Acts—Documentation and Study Center on Rescuers of Jews in the Nazi Era.

Connections

Married Malkah Muriel Savod, June 22, 1947. Children: Seth, Ethan, Alissa.

Father:

Maurice Schulweis

Mother:

Helen (Rezak) Schulweis

Spouse:

Malkah Muriel Savod

child:

Ethan Schulweis

child:

Seth Schulweis

child:

Alissa Schulweis