Isaiah Zeldin


Isaiah Zeldin was an American rabbi. He was the founder of the Stephen Wise Temple, a Reform synagogue in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California.

Early years and education

Yiddish was his first language. He was born in Brooklyn, the second of three sons born to Movsha Froim "Morris" Zeldin, a pioneer in the Zionist movement and one of the organizers of the United Jewish Appeal of New York, and Esther née Shlyapochnik, both immigrants from Petrikov. Isaiah Zeldin graduated from Brooklyn College in 1941 and worked for the Jewish Education Committee in New York City. He was ordained at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, which awarded him its Simon Lazarus Prize for attaining highest academic standing in his graduating class.

Rabbinate

Before he was ordained, he served as rabbi of Temple Israel. He was appointed assistant rabbi at Temple B'nai Jeshurin, Newark, New Jersey and subsequently the first rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom, Flushing, NY, 1951. In 1953 he became director of the Southern California region of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and Dean of the Los Angeles College of Jewish Studies. In 1958, he assumed the pulpit at Temple Emanuel upon the sudden death of Rabbi Bernard Harrison.

Foundation of Stephen S. Wise Temple

In 1964 Zeldin and 35 families broke away from Temple Emanuel to establish a new synagogue in Westwood. The new congregation was named for the influential Reform rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise, under whom Zeldin had studied. The new congregation faced immediate controversy as the Union for Reform Judaism felt that some of its members had failed to honor existing commitments to Temple Emanuel, and the UAHC did not accept it for membership for the first five years of its existence. The new congregation was intended to have a membership limited in size to maintain intimacy between the rabbi and the member families, and it met at St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Westwood. A year later, the congregation acquired a site for a permanent home; the size limit policy was changed in 1969; and in 1970, Stephen Wise Temple absorbed the existing Westwood Temple, whose membership had been declining, in part due to disruption from the construction of the San Diego Freeway. As of 2010, the congregational database of the Union for Reform Judaism stated that Stephen S. Wise Temple had 2,886 members, which was more than any other congregation in the database.

Later years

In 1990, Zeldin retired from his duties as Senior Rabbi and was succeeded by Eli Herscher. In 1999, Rabbi Zeldin delivered a prayer at the inauguration of California Gov. Gray Davis. Zeldin died in 2018 at age 97.

Books

  • Isaiah Zeldin. Zeldin's Way: Eighty-Five Stories for Eighty-Five Years. Isaac Nathan Publishing Co.
  • Isaiah Zeldin. What this modern Jew believes. Isaac Nathan Publishing Co.
  • Isaiah Zeldin. Sources of Faith in Times of Crisis as Reflected in Talmudic Literature. Department of Adult Jewish Education, Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
  • Isaiah Zeldin. The Mumar in the Talmud and Medieval Rabbinic Literature. Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion.