Abba Hillel Silver
Abba Hillel Silver was a prominent American rabbi and a key figure in the Zionist movement during the 20th century. Born Abraham Silver, he immigrated to New York City as a child and later became deeply involved in Zionism, founding the Dr. Herzl Zion Club as a teenager. He graduated from Hebrew Union College and served as a rabbi in Wheeling, West Virginia, before taking on a long tenure at Tifereth-Israel in Cleveland, which became the largest Reform synagogue in the United States during his leadership.
Silver's activism extended beyond his role as a religious leader; he was heavily involved in various organizations advocating for Jewish rights and the establishment of a Jewish state. He held several leadership positions, including president of the United Palestine Appeal and the Zionist Organization of America. Notably, Silver's political engagement was marked by his unique alignment with the Republican Party during a time when many Jewish leaders leaned Democratic. His fiery oratory and commitment to activism significantly influenced both the American Jewish community and U.S. policy regarding Israel.
Silver passed away in 1963 while preparing a eulogy for President John F. Kennedy, leaving behind a legacy of passionate advocacy and a vision for a Jewish homeland that resonated with many. His contributions to Zionism and Jewish education reflect a transformative period in Jewish public life, characterized by a more assertive and activist stance.
Abba Hillel Silver
- Born: January 28, 1893
- Birthplace: Neustadt-Schirwindt, Lithuania, Russian Empire (now Kudirkos Naumiestis, Lithuania)
- Died: November 28, 1963
- Place of death: Cleveland, Ohio
Lithuanian-born rabbi, activist, social reformer
Silver, longtime rabbi at the Temple in Cleveland, Ohio, was a champion of Jewish education and a leader of his rabbinical movement, the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
Early Life
At the age of nine Abraham Silver, who became Abba Hillel Silver, immigrated with his mother and siblings to New York City, where he was reunited with his father, who had preceded his family by two years. As a teen, he started a club devoted to Zionism called the Dr. Herzl Zion Club, named in honor of Theodore Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, who had died shortly before that time. On graduating from high school in 1911, Silver went to Cincinnati to study at Hebrew Union College (HUC) and the University of Cincinnati, from which he graduated in four years. At HUC Silver took on the name Abba Hillel, a Hebraic name change indicating his commitment to Zionism.
He served Congregation Leshem Shomayim (the Eoff Street Temple), in Wheeling, West Virginia, from 1915 to 1917. Silver was then appointed rabbi at Tifereth-Israel, later known as the Temple, in Cleveland, where he remained for forty-six years, until his death. Within a decade of his arrival, the Temple’s membership grew to be the largest Reform synagogue in America. Silver took a brief leave of absence to serve as chaplain to U.S. forces in France during World War I, and he was decorated for his performance by the French government as Officier de l’Instruction Publique.
Silver became famous for his fiery oratory. He would deliver sermons that drew thousands of people. Silver became an impressive activist rabbi. He supported the rights of organized labor and promoted workmen’s compensation and civil liberties. Indeed, his career was marked by strong support of traditional liberal causes. He was an advocate for Jewish education; he was the founder and first president of the Cleveland Bureau of Jewish Education, serving from 1924 to 1932.
Life’s Work
Silver was significant for his inexhaustible and continually expanding role in support of Zionism. He served in leadership roles in an impressive array of organizations. He was president of the United Palestine Appeal (1938-1943), cochairman of the United Jewish Appeal (1938-1944), president of the Zionist Organization of America (1945-1946), chairman of the American Zionist Emergency Council (1933-1934 and 1945-1949), and chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, American Section (1946-1948). His service in these organizations indicates the astonishing amount of work Silver did on behalf of Israel. He was among a small group of men, including Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, who raised the cause of Zionism in America to a political force.
Shaken by Nazi violence toward Jews and what he saw as American indifference to the Jews, Silver increasingly became militant in his politics, which made him unpopular among some of the entrenched Jewish leadership. Wise succeeded in pushing Silver out of the leadership for a time, but his triumphant return marked the effectiveness of the grassroots demand for an assertive approach to the plight of the Jews. Silver was successful in lobbying and mobilizing Jews nationwide to action. His emergence as a supporter of Zionism marked the appearance of a new, mature Jewish politics, one far more activist than had existed previously.
The best example of Silver’s independence was his choice to ally himself with the Republican Party, unique for a Jewish leader in the 1930’s and 1940’s. He became involved with the Republicans at the time Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for a third term as president. Silver advised him not to and supported Wendell Willkie.
Silver worked with Robert Taft and Thomas E. Dewey to insert a plank supporting the founding of a Jewish state in the platform for the Republican Party’s national convention in 1944. Silver did not trust Roosevelt. Marc Lee Raphael writes, “Silver argued both that a promise was only a promise, not a fact, and that pressure would be more likely to lead to the fulfillment of such a promise than would the present situation in which the president, certain of the Jewish vote, did not have to do anything concrete to assure it.” In 1948, Silver supported Dewey because of his stand on Israel. Silver gained access to the Republican leadership, and he served as an adviser on Israel to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Silver believed that the critical task of Zionism lay in the founding of a Jewish state with specific borders that would serve as a home for current and future refugees. Speaking in Tel Aviv in 1933, he said: “We need a spacious haven, no mere corner, nor a narrow, fenced-in place, as Eretz Yisrael is today, divided into two. Rather, from the desert and the Lebanon unto the great river, the Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the great sea will be our boundary. . . . In this place, on both sides of the Jordan, we will create our new life.” Silver died suddenly on November 28, 1963, as he sat down to dinner after composing a eulogy for John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated a few days before.
Significance
As the rabbi of the Temple, Silver preached effectively to thousands of listeners. his Zionism had an important impact on the American Jewish community as well as on America and the American government. He played an important role in helping Israel come into existence. His activism represented a new, open, and occasionally militant approach to Jewish public life.
Bibliography
Raider, Mark A., Jonathan D. Sarna, and Ronald W. Zweig, eds. Abba Hillel Silver and American Zionism. London: Frank Cass, 1997. This collection of essays examines Silver’s Zionism, his growing militant Zionism, and his place in modern American Jewish history.
Raphael, Marc Lee. Abba Hillel Silver: A Profile in American Judaism. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1989. A fine biography of Silver in which Raphael makes the case that Silver’s contribution to the Zionist cause was significant.
Silver, Abba Hillel. Therefore Choose Life. Cleveland: World, 1967. This invaluable collection of sermons, speeches, and writings offer a good insight into Silver’s thinking.