Harry Halpern
Encyclopedia
Harry Halpern was an American religious and community leader, a powerful orator, a respected religious educator, and a prominent Conservative
rabbi
who served for almost 49 years as the rabbi of the East Midwood Jewish Center
(EMJC), in Brooklyn, New York.
of Manhattan
, attending Brooklyn's Public School (PS) 37 and Eastern District High School
. He received his bachelor's degree in philosophy from the City College of New York
in 1919 and a master's degree from Columbia University
in 1925. He also received both a bachelor and doctoral degree from Brooklyn Law School
, studied at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
, and earned ordination as a rabbi from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
(JTS), in 1929. He later received a Doctor of Hebrew Literature degree from JTS in 1951.
Halpern served as the first "pupil rabbi" for the Talmud Torah "junior congregation" of Congregation Beth Jacob Ohev Sholom
in Long Island, New York. He also served for a short time as the "student preacher and spiritual leader" of the Jewish Communal Center of Brooklyn, before taking the position of rabbi for the East Midwood Jewish Center in 1929, where he served for almost 49 years. At the EMJC, his sermons constantly educated, challenged and inspired the congregation both in terms of Jewish identity and larger social concerns such as the rights of minorities, and he "pleaded for intensive Jewish Education of the Day School-Yeshiva type long before private schools became fashionable. He retired from the EMJC in 1977 to live in Southbury, Connecticut
until his death four years later, in 1981.
A leader in both the general Jewish community and numerous major rabbinic groups, he served as president of both the Rabbinical Assembly
, the organization of conservative rabbis, and the New York Board of Rabbis
, and Chairman of the JTS Rabbinic Cabinet, advising the seminary chancellor on issues important to the Jewish people. He was also Chairman of the Rabbinical Assembly Social Actions Commission, visiting professor of homiletics
at JTS, and adjunct professor of pastoral psychiatry at JTS. In addition to his work at JTS, he served as chairman of the board of the Yeshiva of Flatbush.
During his tenure as president of the Rabbinical Assembly, a number of major changes and new institutions for the conservative movement were introduced, often in conjunction with the Jewish Theological Seminary, reaffirming those two organizations as the leadership groups for the movement. These included the Joint Bet Din(rabbinical court) of the Conservative Movement and the “Joint Conference on Jewish Law.”
Halpern was a leader in many organizations and philanthropic affairs, including service as a member of the New York City Human Rights Commission (1967–1978), and the Kings County Commission Against Discrimination, and on the executive committees of the Brooklyn Red Cross and the Brooklyn Cancer Society. He also served on the executive committee of the New York Division of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He opposed the use of taxes to support private schools (including religious schools) during his chairmanship of the Social Actions Commission of Conservative Judaism, also speaking out against the idea as President of the New York Board of Rabbis. The Board of Rabbis resolution was especially opposed to the idea of public funding of private religious schools, calling such action a “violation of our understanding of the hallowed principle of church-state separation.”
As one of his colleagues wrote upon the occasion of Halpern's death, "There was hardly a National Jewish Conference where Harry Halpern had not delivered the keynote address or one of the major speeches." Halpern's sermons, lectures, and addresses, in and out of the synagogue, were "challenging, demanding, and even disturbing ... Rabbi Halpern preached social justice and human rights when those values were still associated with Hosea
, Amos
, and Isaiah
."
Halpern was well respected by civic leaders for his actions, and sought out for his advice. In 1968, when a Brooklyn Jewish School was attacked by youths with rocks and molotov cocktails on the night of Halloween
, New York Mayor John Lindsay visited the site the next day, also visiting other Jewish schools, he stopped to pick up Halpern and have lunch with him in between the school visits.
Halpern was a frequent speaker for organizations whose causes he supported, such as the November 1960 benefit for Brooklyn’s “Pride of Judea Children’s Services,” an organization supporting the needs of orphaned, needy, and emotionally disturbed childen. He also saw his leadership positions in rabbinic organizations as opportunities to highlight needs and support ministry to those in need, as evidenced by the special conference he convened on prison ministry during his tenure as Chairman of the New York Board of Rabbis chaplaincy program.
Halpern was an ardent Zionist, supporting the rights and needs of the Jewish community in pre-Israel Palestine, and later in the newly established State of Israel, but was also a strong proponent of solving problems through peaceful means. For example, at the annual meeting of the Rabbinical Assembly, where he was re-elected president of the group, a resolution was passed under his leadership, praising President Dwight D. Eisenhower
’s stand for peace. The resolution read, “We commend the President for the restraining influence he has exercised upon those in our country who would resolve the present international impasse by a resort to arms. We pray that he may be granted wisdom from on High to lead our country into the path of a lasting peace.”
Well-known as an orator, his sermons were often quoted in the press. A 1961 New York Times article quoted his explanation of the message of the festival of Shavuot
for Jews, both in terms of their religion and their responsibilities as Americans: “Shavuot conveys two crucial messages to the world today. It stresses the role of the law in society and its binding validity on the conduct of our individual and national life, and it cautions us against yielding to discouragement because of initial failure.” Similarly, his words about the meaning of Purim
, linking it to the meaning of the right to be different within a democracy, were also quoted by the Times: “True religious freedom in a democratic society means not only the acceptance of the legitimacy of differences, but it regards the diversity of culture and religions as a source of enrichment and ennoblement.”
Halpern was married to the former Mollie Singer until her death, later marrying his second wife, Jean. Both of his brothers also served as rabbis: Rabbi Peretz Halpern of Marblehead, Massachusetts
, and Rabbi Isadore Halpern of Brooklyn, New York.
– open Saturday.”
A passionate speaker, Halpern was also a staunch advocate of civility in both private and public discourse. In 1968 , when then New York Mayor John Lindsay
was “booed and jeered” during a synagogue meeting on school decentralization in New York City, Halpern took the microphone to challenge the conduct of the congregation: “I say this with a great deal of sadness in my heart. As Jews, you have no right to be in this synagogue acting the way you are acting,” he said, continuing:
,” current at that time) to fight for the constitutional rights guaranteed to them in the constitution and reaffirmed by the Supreme Court
, his words became an important force in later rabbinic support of this cause:
in 1944. He was a fervent spokesman for Israel, sharply criticizing Jewish organizations which lacked the courage (in his words) to take a stand for the new State of Israel. For example, referring to the American Council for Judaism
, he called them “terrified Jews who are attempting to convince the American people that a love for Israel is tantamount to disloyalty to our country.” Disagreeing with such a stand, he proclaimed that “all Americans who understand the true meaning of American democracy have seen no division of American loyalty in American Jewry’s sympathy with and whole-hearted support of those heroic people who make up the population of Israel.” Halpern also criticized the American State Department for its lack of sufficient support, publicly calling on the United States to send “defensive weapons” to Israel “to thwart Communist aggression and design in the area.”
On June 3, 1946, Halpern, in his position as head of the Brooklyn division of the Zionist Organization of America, presided over a rally "to mobilize Jews to support the Zionist program. Halpern declared that the rally would voice "the common determination of Brooklyn Zionists to fight the [British] delaying tactics now being pursued to block the granting of 100,000 certificates of immigration, recommended by the Anglo-American Committee on Palestine."
In 1948, when Dr. Chaim Yassky, the director of the Hadassah Medical Organization in Palestine, was slain in an attack by Arabs, Halpern spoke at a meeting of more than 1500 Hadassah
members in Brooklyn, calling on the group to observe a moment of silence in memory of Dr. Yassky, other doctors, nurses and laboratory assistants working for the cause of medicine in Palestine. The New York Times reported that many of the participants in the meeting openly wept, and that Halpern’s words added to the “emotional intensity” of the group.
Halpern continued to support Israel throughout his life, and in 1951 served as the Honorary Chairman for Brooklyn Israel Bond dinners as part of a national effort to raise $500,000,000 in Israel Bonds. Chairing a 1959 dinner to honor departing Israeli Ambassador Abba Eban
, Halpern called for a greater awareness of Hebrew language
and culture “to achieve a closer relationship between Israeli and American Jews.”
In the sermon, reprinted in the New York Times, Halpern went on to clarify that the image of the modern father as a “moron” came from “television and comics,” while the same media portrayed fathers in earlier times as tyrants. His sermon continued:
During his tenure as Rabbinical Assembly president, Halpern represented that organization in a joint announcement by the RA and the Jewish Theological Seminary, that a revision in the traditional Jewish marriage document, the ketubah
, would require Jewish couples to consult with a newly established conservative “Bet Din” (rabbinical court) before a divorce. Halpern noted that part of the reason behind the change was to protect Jewish women from “unscrupulous” men, who would abuse them (and Jewish law) by granting a civil divorce without a religious divorce (“Get
”) – a situation that would prevent religious Jewish women from being able to remarry, but that the change would also help support marriages, through the opportunity to seek marital counseling “to heal marital rifts and to ward off hasty divorce actions.”
Halpern often spoke out about the importance of human relationships, among family members, colleagues, and friends. In 1956, at the annual gathering of the Rabbinical Assembly, he said, "I know this, that all religion and all life comes down to this – to the effort of the human soul to break through the barriers of loneliness and to make some contact with another seeking soul or to that which all souls seek, namely, God. Therefore, I think we can dedicate ourselves and devote ourselves to assisting and aiding and comforting one another."
Halpern continued his opposition to religion in public schools through the 1960s, publicly supporting the Supreme Court ban on prayer in public schools.
Among his most notable sermons, quoted in The New York Times, was his call to look at leaders and heroes from all religions and cultures—individuals like Jesus, Confucius, Gandhi, and Albert Schweitzer—as a means to keep faith in humanity itself: “There is too much a tendency in our day to condemn humanity, or large sections of it. We condemn all nations or groups of citizens within nations. But, like Abraham of old, we must plead for sinful cities with the thought that every group, every city, every nation does contain some righteous people. It is for these righteous people, if for no one else, that the world is worth saving.”
His talks often focused on the challenge of looking ahead, not back, linking the ideas of courage and faith:
ic study at the Jewish Theological Seminary in his honor. In 1948, the East Midwood Jewish Center sisterhood honored Halpern by asking him to present an ambulance on the group’s behalf to the “American Red Mogen Dovid for Palestine, Inc.” (precursor to the Red Magen David), which he called in his presentation remarks “the Red Cross of Israel.”
In April 1954, the EMJC held a weekend-long celebration honoring Halpern's 25th year in the rabbinate and the Center's 30th anniversary. Among those who paid tribute to Halpern were Abraham L. Sacher, president of Brandeis University
," who spoke at a dinner in Halpern's honor, and Supreme Court Justice Maximilian Moss, who delivered a greeting at the Friday evening worship services that began the weekend program. Rabbi Simon Greenberg
, Vice-chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, officiated at the service.
Additionally, the East Midwood Jewish Center's school presents the annual Dvora Halpern Memorial Award, named in memory of Halpern's mother, and Halpern himself established the "Joel A. Halpern Scholarship Fund," at Union College
in Schenectady, New York
, in memory of his son Joel (Union College, Class of 1961).
In a presentation made at the annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly the year after Halpern's death, his colleague Rabbi Baruch Silverstein included these words:
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
who served for almost 49 years as the rabbi of the East Midwood Jewish Center
East Midwood Jewish Center
East Midwood Jewish Center is a Conservative synagogue located at 1625 Ocean Avenue, Midwood, Brooklyn, New York City.Organized in 1924, the congregation's Renaissance revival building typified the large multi-purpose synagogue centers being built at the time, and was from the 1990s until 2010 the...
(EMJC), in Brooklyn, New York.
Life and works
Halpern was born on the Lower East SideLower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, attending Brooklyn's Public School (PS) 37 and Eastern District High School
Eastern District High School
The Eastern District High School is a defunct high school in eastern Williamsburg, New York at 850 Grand Street. It was a comprehensive high school. It opened in 1894 and it remained in service until the city closed the school in 1995....
. He received his bachelor's degree in philosophy from the City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
in 1919 and a master's degree from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1925. He also received both a bachelor and doctoral degree from Brooklyn Law School
Brooklyn Law School
Brooklyn Law School is a law school located in Brooklyn Heights, in Downtown Brooklyn, New York.-History:Founded in 1901 by William Payson Richardson and Norman P. Heffley, Brooklyn Law School was the first law school on Long Island. Using space provided by Heffley’s business school, the law...
, studied at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary , or Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan, is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University, located in Washington Heights, New York. It is named after Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor, who died the year it was founded, 1896...
, and earned ordination as a rabbi from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Jewish Theological Seminary of America
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism, and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studies.JTS operates five schools: Albert A...
(JTS), in 1929. He later received a Doctor of Hebrew Literature degree from JTS in 1951.
Halpern served as the first "pupil rabbi" for the Talmud Torah "junior congregation" of Congregation Beth Jacob Ohev Sholom
Congregation Beth Jacob Ohev Sholom
Congregation Beth Jacob Ohev Sholom is an Orthodox synagogue located at 284 Rodney Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York...
in Long Island, New York. He also served for a short time as the "student preacher and spiritual leader" of the Jewish Communal Center of Brooklyn, before taking the position of rabbi for the East Midwood Jewish Center in 1929, where he served for almost 49 years. At the EMJC, his sermons constantly educated, challenged and inspired the congregation both in terms of Jewish identity and larger social concerns such as the rights of minorities, and he "pleaded for intensive Jewish Education of the Day School-Yeshiva type long before private schools became fashionable. He retired from the EMJC in 1977 to live in Southbury, Connecticut
Southbury, Connecticut
Southbury is a town located in western New Haven County, Connecticut, USA. Southbury is located north of Oxford and Newtown; it also is east of Brookfield. Southbury's population was 18,567 at the 2000 census....
until his death four years later, in 1981.
A leader in both the general Jewish community and numerous major rabbinic groups, he served as president of both the Rabbinical Assembly
Rabbinical Assembly
The Rabbinical Assembly is the international association of Conservative rabbis. The RA was founded in 1901 to shape the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement. It publishes prayerbooks and books of Jewish interest, and oversees the work of the Committee on Jewish Law and...
, the organization of conservative rabbis, and the New York Board of Rabbis
New York Board of Rabbis
The New York Board of Rabbis is an organization of Orthodox, Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist rabbis in New York State and the surrounding portions of Connecticut and New Jersey....
, and Chairman of the JTS Rabbinic Cabinet, advising the seminary chancellor on issues important to the Jewish people. He was also Chairman of the Rabbinical Assembly Social Actions Commission, visiting professor of homiletics
Homiletics
Homiletics , in theology the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific department of public preaching. The one who practices or studies homiletics is called a homilist....
at JTS, and adjunct professor of pastoral psychiatry at JTS. In addition to his work at JTS, he served as chairman of the board of the Yeshiva of Flatbush.
During his tenure as president of the Rabbinical Assembly, a number of major changes and new institutions for the conservative movement were introduced, often in conjunction with the Jewish Theological Seminary, reaffirming those two organizations as the leadership groups for the movement. These included the Joint Bet Din(rabbinical court) of the Conservative Movement and the “Joint Conference on Jewish Law.”
Halpern was a leader in many organizations and philanthropic affairs, including service as a member of the New York City Human Rights Commission (1967–1978), and the Kings County Commission Against Discrimination, and on the executive committees of the Brooklyn Red Cross and the Brooklyn Cancer Society. He also served on the executive committee of the New York Division of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He opposed the use of taxes to support private schools (including religious schools) during his chairmanship of the Social Actions Commission of Conservative Judaism, also speaking out against the idea as President of the New York Board of Rabbis. The Board of Rabbis resolution was especially opposed to the idea of public funding of private religious schools, calling such action a “violation of our understanding of the hallowed principle of church-state separation.”
Hosea
Hosea was the son of Beeri and a prophet in Israel in the 8th century BC. He is one of the Twelve Prophets of the Jewish Hebrew Bible, also known as the Minor Prophets of the Christian Old Testament. Hosea is often seen as a "prophet of doom", but underneath his message of destruction is a promise...
, Amos
Amos
-First name:* Amos , one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible**Book of Amos, his writings* Amos, son of Nephi and his son Amos, two minor figures in the Book of Mormon...
, and Isaiah
Isaiah
Isaiah ; Greek: ', Ēsaïās ; "Yahu is salvation") was a prophet in the 8th-century BC Kingdom of Judah.Jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon; he is the first listed of the neviim akharonim, the later prophets. Many of the New Testament teachings of Jesus...
."
Halpern was well respected by civic leaders for his actions, and sought out for his advice. In 1968, when a Brooklyn Jewish School was attacked by youths with rocks and molotov cocktails on the night of Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
, New York Mayor John Lindsay visited the site the next day, also visiting other Jewish schools, he stopped to pick up Halpern and have lunch with him in between the school visits.
Halpern was a frequent speaker for organizations whose causes he supported, such as the November 1960 benefit for Brooklyn’s “Pride of Judea Children’s Services,” an organization supporting the needs of orphaned, needy, and emotionally disturbed childen. He also saw his leadership positions in rabbinic organizations as opportunities to highlight needs and support ministry to those in need, as evidenced by the special conference he convened on prison ministry during his tenure as Chairman of the New York Board of Rabbis chaplaincy program.
Halpern was an ardent Zionist, supporting the rights and needs of the Jewish community in pre-Israel Palestine, and later in the newly established State of Israel, but was also a strong proponent of solving problems through peaceful means. For example, at the annual meeting of the Rabbinical Assembly, where he was re-elected president of the group, a resolution was passed under his leadership, praising President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
’s stand for peace. The resolution read, “We commend the President for the restraining influence he has exercised upon those in our country who would resolve the present international impasse by a resort to arms. We pray that he may be granted wisdom from on High to lead our country into the path of a lasting peace.”
Well-known as an orator, his sermons were often quoted in the press. A 1961 New York Times article quoted his explanation of the message of the festival of Shavuot
Shavuot
The festival of is a Jewish holiday that occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan ....
for Jews, both in terms of their religion and their responsibilities as Americans: “Shavuot conveys two crucial messages to the world today. It stresses the role of the law in society and its binding validity on the conduct of our individual and national life, and it cautions us against yielding to discouragement because of initial failure.” Similarly, his words about the meaning of Purim
Purim
Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire from destruction in the wake of a plot by Haman, a story recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther .Purim is celebrated annually according to the Hebrew calendar on the 14th...
, linking it to the meaning of the right to be different within a democracy, were also quoted by the Times: “True religious freedom in a democratic society means not only the acceptance of the legitimacy of differences, but it regards the diversity of culture and religions as a source of enrichment and ennoblement.”
Halpern was married to the former Mollie Singer until her death, later marrying his second wife, Jean. Both of his brothers also served as rabbis: Rabbi Peretz Halpern of Marblehead, Massachusetts
Marblehead, Massachusetts
Marblehead is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 19,808 at the 2010 census. It is home to the Marblehead Neck Wildlife Sanctuary and Devereux Beach...
, and Rabbi Isadore Halpern of Brooklyn, New York.
Views
A keen observer of religious life in America, he once summed up the inconsistencies of Judaism in America by describing a sign he had seen on a store window: “Closed Thursday and Friday for Rosh HashanahRosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah , , is the Jewish New Year. It is the first of the High Holy Days or Yamim Nora'im which occur in the autumn...
– open Saturday.”
A passionate speaker, Halpern was also a staunch advocate of civility in both private and public discourse. In 1968 , when then New York Mayor John Lindsay
John Lindsay
John Vliet Lindsay was an American politician, lawyer and broadcaster who was a U.S. Congressman, Mayor of New York City, candidate for U.S...
was “booed and jeered” during a synagogue meeting on school decentralization in New York City, Halpern took the microphone to challenge the conduct of the congregation: “I say this with a great deal of sadness in my heart. As Jews, you have no right to be in this synagogue acting the way you are acting,” he said, continuing:
This is the spot on which for close to 40 years I preached to my people to be respectful and understanding. Is this the exemplification of the Jewish faith? I understand rebellion: Jews were leaders in every revolution all over the world. But there is one thing about being rebellious and being a dissenter. One can be a rebel with good manners and that is all I’m asking you.
Civil rights
A strong supporter of equal rights, he opened the 56th annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly during his time as president of the organization, by calling for more involvement on the part of all rabbis in the fight for civil rights for “negroes” in America. Praising the dignity, the restraint, and the “truly religious spirit” of African Americans (using the term “NegroNegro
The word Negro is used in the English-speaking world to refer to a person of black ancestry or appearance, whether of African descent or not...
,” current at that time) to fight for the constitutional rights guaranteed to them in the constitution and reaffirmed by the Supreme Court
Supreme court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of many legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, instance court, judgment court, high court, or apex court...
, his words became an important force in later rabbinic support of this cause:
We recognize the social and economic problems which are faced by our colleagues and their members in the heated atmosphere of bigotry. We can understand that there can be a difference of opinion concerning the method of achieving the desired result and the pace at which it should proceed, but we feel that no one can be true to the principles of the faith he professes unless he ranges himself on the side of those who are struggling for liberation from the Pharoahs of the twentieth century.
Support for Israel
A strong Zionist, Halpern was elected president of the Brooklyn region of the Zionist Organization of AmericaZionist Organization of America
The Zionist Organization of America , founded in 1897, was one of the first official Zionist organizations in the United States, and, especially early in the 20th century, the primary representative of Jewish Americans to the World Zionist Organization, espousing primarily Political Zionism.Today,...
in 1944. He was a fervent spokesman for Israel, sharply criticizing Jewish organizations which lacked the courage (in his words) to take a stand for the new State of Israel. For example, referring to the American Council for Judaism
American Council for Judaism
The American Council for Judaism is an organization of American Jews committed to the proposition that Jews are not a nationality but merely a religious group, adhering to the original stated principles of Reform Judaism, as articulated in the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform.The ACJ was founded in June...
, he called them “terrified Jews who are attempting to convince the American people that a love for Israel is tantamount to disloyalty to our country.” Disagreeing with such a stand, he proclaimed that “all Americans who understand the true meaning of American democracy have seen no division of American loyalty in American Jewry’s sympathy with and whole-hearted support of those heroic people who make up the population of Israel.” Halpern also criticized the American State Department for its lack of sufficient support, publicly calling on the United States to send “defensive weapons” to Israel “to thwart Communist aggression and design in the area.”
On June 3, 1946, Halpern, in his position as head of the Brooklyn division of the Zionist Organization of America, presided over a rally "to mobilize Jews to support the Zionist program. Halpern declared that the rally would voice "the common determination of Brooklyn Zionists to fight the [British] delaying tactics now being pursued to block the granting of 100,000 certificates of immigration, recommended by the Anglo-American Committee on Palestine."
In 1948, when Dr. Chaim Yassky, the director of the Hadassah Medical Organization in Palestine, was slain in an attack by Arabs, Halpern spoke at a meeting of more than 1500 Hadassah
Hadassah
Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America is an American Jewish volunteer women's organization. Founded in 1912 by Henrietta Szold, it is one of the largest international Jewish organizations, with around...
members in Brooklyn, calling on the group to observe a moment of silence in memory of Dr. Yassky, other doctors, nurses and laboratory assistants working for the cause of medicine in Palestine. The New York Times reported that many of the participants in the meeting openly wept, and that Halpern’s words added to the “emotional intensity” of the group.
Halpern continued to support Israel throughout his life, and in 1951 served as the Honorary Chairman for Brooklyn Israel Bond dinners as part of a national effort to raise $500,000,000 in Israel Bonds. Chairing a 1959 dinner to honor departing Israeli Ambassador Abba Eban
Abba Eban
Abba Eban was an Israeli diplomat and politician.In his career he was Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister, Education Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and ambassador to the United States and to the United Nations...
, Halpern called for a greater awareness of Hebrew language
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
and culture “to achieve a closer relationship between Israeli and American Jews.”
Family strength
Halpern gained notoriety for his 1957 sermon that declared that “the American father is a moron,” speaking on the need for stronger parental leadership in American families to ward off the “dire consequences” we would face without it.In the sermon, reprinted in the New York Times, Halpern went on to clarify that the image of the modern father as a “moron” came from “television and comics,” while the same media portrayed fathers in earlier times as tyrants. His sermon continued:
Aside from being a moron, the man spends half his life building a home and the other half getting out of and running away from it. As a result, today’s families lack the definite spiritual and cultural links which only a responsible parent can provide. How can children mature and grow up into responsible citizens in such an environment? Today’s youth should be fully equipped with the cultural heritage by the time it enters the higher educational institutions, yet how many parents fail to provide that heritage? Too many parents are under the false impression that it is in colleges that their children will acquire the characteristics they should have received at home.
During his tenure as Rabbinical Assembly president, Halpern represented that organization in a joint announcement by the RA and the Jewish Theological Seminary, that a revision in the traditional Jewish marriage document, the ketubah
Ketubah
A ketubah is a special type of Jewish prenuptial agreement. It is considered an integral part of a traditional Jewish marriage, and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom, in relation to the bride.-History:...
, would require Jewish couples to consult with a newly established conservative “Bet Din” (rabbinical court) before a divorce. Halpern noted that part of the reason behind the change was to protect Jewish women from “unscrupulous” men, who would abuse them (and Jewish law) by granting a civil divorce without a religious divorce (“Get
Get
Get or GET may refer to:*Get , the offspring of an animal*Get , legal issues around the Jewish divorce procedure*Get , the Jewish divorce procedure...
”) – a situation that would prevent religious Jewish women from being able to remarry, but that the change would also help support marriages, through the opportunity to seek marital counseling “to heal marital rifts and to ward off hasty divorce actions.”
Halpern often spoke out about the importance of human relationships, among family members, colleagues, and friends. In 1956, at the annual gathering of the Rabbinical Assembly, he said, "I know this, that all religion and all life comes down to this – to the effort of the human soul to break through the barriers of loneliness and to make some contact with another seeking soul or to that which all souls seek, namely, God. Therefore, I think we can dedicate ourselves and devote ourselves to assisting and aiding and comforting one another."
Religion in public schools
During heated 1950s debates on the subject of religion in the public school, Halpern spoke out as President of the Rabbinical Assembly in opposition to the idea. After a presentation to members of the group by Rabbi Morris Adler of Detroit, Michigan, in which Adler took a strong stand against “any religious intrusions upon public education,” Halpern personally supported this position, adding that it was a “long-established policy” of the organization.Halpern continued his opposition to religion in public schools through the 1960s, publicly supporting the Supreme Court ban on prayer in public schools.
Faith and hope
Throughout his career, Halpern was known for his ability to identify and confront problems – but to fight the tendency to despair, preaching the need to keep faith, and keep hope, even in humanity itself.Among his most notable sermons, quoted in The New York Times, was his call to look at leaders and heroes from all religions and cultures—individuals like Jesus, Confucius, Gandhi, and Albert Schweitzer—as a means to keep faith in humanity itself: “There is too much a tendency in our day to condemn humanity, or large sections of it. We condemn all nations or groups of citizens within nations. But, like Abraham of old, we must plead for sinful cities with the thought that every group, every city, every nation does contain some righteous people. It is for these righteous people, if for no one else, that the world is worth saving.”
His talks often focused on the challenge of looking ahead, not back, linking the ideas of courage and faith:
I love to play with words and look at them closely. I wonder if it has ever occurred to you to examine the word, life, l-i-f-e? In the middle of every life is an "if," i-f, and therefore a great many things can be. There is no point in thinking in terms of what might have been. One has to have faith, one has to have courage, and faith and courage go together, because you cannot have courage without faith. On the other hand, faith leads to courage."
Honors and memorials
The many honors Halpern received during his life and in his memory, after his death, include the renaming of the East Midwood Jewish Center educational center as the “Rabbi Harry Halpern Education Center” on March 17, 1995, and a 1947 gift of $50,000, raised by members of his synagogue congregation and friends, to establish a fellowship in TalmudTalmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic study at the Jewish Theological Seminary in his honor. In 1948, the East Midwood Jewish Center sisterhood honored Halpern by asking him to present an ambulance on the group’s behalf to the “American Red Mogen Dovid for Palestine, Inc.” (precursor to the Red Magen David), which he called in his presentation remarks “the Red Cross of Israel.”
In April 1954, the EMJC held a weekend-long celebration honoring Halpern's 25th year in the rabbinate and the Center's 30th anniversary. Among those who paid tribute to Halpern were Abraham L. Sacher, president of Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
," who spoke at a dinner in Halpern's honor, and Supreme Court Justice Maximilian Moss, who delivered a greeting at the Friday evening worship services that began the weekend program. Rabbi Simon Greenberg
Simon Greenberg
Dr. Simon Greenberg, was a Russian born American Conservative rabbi and scholar. Greenberg was part of the senior management of many Jewish organizations in America. He helped to found a number of institutions, including the American Jewish University, of which he was the first President...
, Vice-chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, officiated at the service.
Additionally, the East Midwood Jewish Center's school presents the annual Dvora Halpern Memorial Award, named in memory of Halpern's mother, and Halpern himself established the "Joel A. Halpern Scholarship Fund," at Union College
Union College
Union College is a private, non-denominational liberal arts college located in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. In the 19th century, it became the "Mother of Fraternities", as...
in Schenectady, New York
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...
, in memory of his son Joel (Union College, Class of 1961).
In a presentation made at the annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly the year after Halpern's death, his colleague Rabbi Baruch Silverstein included these words:
But it is not only Rabbi Halpern's passionate and persistent demands for a maximum Jewish life that we remember today. As we part with our beloved rabbi and teacher of half a century, we wish to pay tribute also to his many other qualities: his wide scholarship, both Jewish and secular, his perceptive and sharp mind, his refined aesthetic tastes, his sparkling sense of humor, his brilliant eloquence, his poetic imagination and literary style and, above all, his human tenderness and love of people. With what natural glee he would play with the schoolchildren, kissing them and hugging them and sitting on the floor with them. And who among us had not seen Rabbi Halpern wiping his tears and actually sobbing at a funeral? With what sympathetic involvement Harry Halpern counselled hundreds of troubled individuals, often carrying on his very soul their pains, their sorrows, their scars.
Published works
- "From Where I stand" (collection of sermons, essays, and lectures), Ktav Publishing House, New York, 1974: ISBN 978-0870682636.
- "Bible Readings for the Young: Volume I," Behrman House, 1922.