Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, who served at nearly every level of leadership of American Modern Orthodox Judaism -- and who was even termed by the New York Times "the dean of the modern Orthodox rabbinate" (3 March 1977), having served as the rabbi of Congregation Shaaray Tefila of Far Rockaway and the Fifth Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan -- passed away at the age of 98 years old. The funeral is being today at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue with burial in Jerusalem and shiva in Jerusalem/New York.
Rabbi Rackman was an early graduate of RIETS ('34), earned his law degree and PhD in political science from Columbia University and began teaching political philosophy and jurisprudence, in 1947, at Yeshiva College. A former colonel in the United States Air Force Reserve, Rabbi Rackman was chairman of the commission on Jewish chaplaincy in the United States Armed Forces during World War II. Rabbi Rackman was an adviser to Yeshiva University president Dr. Samuel Belkin, and after leaving Yeshiva University in 1977, Rabbi Rackman became president (1977-1985) and Chancellor (since 1985) of Bar-Ilan University.
In one of the final articles published in the YUdaica section of The Commentator (during the 2004/2005 academic year), my friend Zev Nagel and I interviewed Rabbi Rackman at his Upper East Side home and the interview, "Reflections on Those Years: An Interview with Rabbi Emanuel Rackman," The Yeshiva University Commentator (5/16/05), here, is also available in "Reflections on Those Years: An Interview with Rabbi Emanuel Rackman," in Menachem Butler and Zev Nagel, eds., My Yeshiva College: 75 Years of Memories (New York: Yashar Books, 2006), 96-99. See also David Singer, "Emanuel Rackman: Gadfly of Modern Orthodoxy," Modern Judaism 28:2 (May 2008): 134-148; for a recent look at the Synagogue Council of America (SCA) during the latter part of the twentieth century, when Rabbi Rackman was most involved from the American Orthodox communal perspective, see Jonathan J. Golden, "From Cooperation to Confrontation: The Rise and Fall of the Synagogue Council of America," (PhD dissertation, Brandeis University, 2008), esp. 83-113 ("Matir Issurim? The Synagogue Council of America and the Struggle for Unity, 1946-1960"), and 114-137 ("For Whom Do They Toil? The Decline and Collapse of the Synagogue Council of America, 1960-1994"); and just several weeks ago, A Modern Orthodox Life: Sermons and Columns of Rabbi Emanuel Rackman (Ktav, 2008) was finally published.
As an aside, similar deanship designations to the above had previously been conferred by the New York Times upon Rabbi Gavriel Z. Margolis (9 September 1935), Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies RaMaZ) (26 August 1936) and Rabbi Bernard L. Levinthal (7 June 1948; and 24 September 1952).
Rabbi Rackman was an early graduate of RIETS ('34), earned his law degree and PhD in political science from Columbia University and began teaching political philosophy and jurisprudence, in 1947, at Yeshiva College. A former colonel in the United States Air Force Reserve, Rabbi Rackman was chairman of the commission on Jewish chaplaincy in the United States Armed Forces during World War II. Rabbi Rackman was an adviser to Yeshiva University president Dr. Samuel Belkin, and after leaving Yeshiva University in 1977, Rabbi Rackman became president (1977-1985) and Chancellor (since 1985) of Bar-Ilan University.
In one of the final articles published in the YUdaica section of The Commentator (during the 2004/2005 academic year), my friend Zev Nagel and I interviewed Rabbi Rackman at his Upper East Side home and the interview, "Reflections on Those Years: An Interview with Rabbi Emanuel Rackman," The Yeshiva University Commentator (5/16/05), here, is also available in "Reflections on Those Years: An Interview with Rabbi Emanuel Rackman," in Menachem Butler and Zev Nagel, eds., My Yeshiva College: 75 Years of Memories (New York: Yashar Books, 2006), 96-99. See also David Singer, "Emanuel Rackman: Gadfly of Modern Orthodoxy," Modern Judaism 28:2 (May 2008): 134-148; for a recent look at the Synagogue Council of America (SCA) during the latter part of the twentieth century, when Rabbi Rackman was most involved from the American Orthodox communal perspective, see Jonathan J. Golden, "From Cooperation to Confrontation: The Rise and Fall of the Synagogue Council of America," (PhD dissertation, Brandeis University, 2008), esp. 83-113 ("Matir Issurim? The Synagogue Council of America and the Struggle for Unity, 1946-1960"), and 114-137 ("For Whom Do They Toil? The Decline and Collapse of the Synagogue Council of America, 1960-1994"); and just several weeks ago, A Modern Orthodox Life: Sermons and Columns of Rabbi Emanuel Rackman (Ktav, 2008) was finally published.
As an aside, similar deanship designations to the above had previously been conferred by the New York Times upon Rabbi Gavriel Z. Margolis (9 September 1935), Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies RaMaZ) (26 August 1936) and Rabbi Bernard L. Levinthal (7 June 1948; and 24 September 1952).
1 comments:
Barukh Dayan HaEmet.
Interestingly, both RaMaZ and R' Levinthal were early presidents of RIETS, the former from 1908-1910 and the latter from 1910-1915. The first president was R' Dr. Phillip Hillel HaKohen Klein, from 1906-1908, and honorary president after that. (The school had been around for ten years before that; in 1915 it merged with Etz Chaim and R' Revel became president.)
Of course, R' Rackman was the other candidate for president of YU in 1976, coming in second to R' Lamm (R' Riskin got one vote, that of the student representative), but that's a whole other story.
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