Isaac Landman (October 24, 1880 – September 4, 1946) was an American Reform rabbi, author and anti-Zionist activist. He was editor of the ten volume Universal Jewish Encyclopedia.[1][2][3]
Biography
editLandman was born in Russia on October 4, 1880, to Ada and Louis Landman. He emigrated to the United States in 1890.[1] He graduated from the Reform Hebrew Union College. In 1911, with the assistance of Jacob Schiff, Julius Rosenwald, and Simon Bamberger, he founded a Jewish farm colony in Utah. In 1913 he married Beatrice Eschner. During World War I he was "said to be the first Jewish chaplain in the United States Army to serve on foreign soil".[1][3]
He was a leader in Jewish–Christian ecumenism.[3] He was editor of American Hebrew Magazine from 1918, served as the delegate of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference.[1]
Landman had also been a prominent opponent of Zionism: when, in 1922, the United States Congress was considering the Lodge–Fish resolution in support of the Balfour Declaration, Landman and Rabbi David Philipson had presented the Reform movement's (then) anti-Zionist position to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Landman also printed many opinions against the resolution and Zionism in his American Hebrew Magazine.[4] The bill was eventually unanimously supported by both houses of Congress,[5] and approved by President Harding.[6]
He became rabbi of Brooklyn's Congregation Beth Elohim in 1931.[1][2] Three years later he began editing the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, which was published in ten volumes in the 1940s.[1] He died on September 4, 1946.[3]
Landman was also a playwright. With his brother, physician Michael Lewis Landman, he authored the play A Man of Honor. Michael Landman's daughter was the architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable.
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f "Isaac Landman Papers". University of Illinois at Chicago. Archived from the original on June 8, 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
Isaac Landman, rabbi and journalist, was born in Russia in 1880 and was brought to the United States at the age of ten. He was ordained a Rabbi at the Hebrew Union College in 1906. On March 24, 1909, Rabbi Landman delivered "The Call of the Farm" address at Hull-House. In 1911, with the aid of Jacob H. Schiff, Julius Rosenwald, and Simon Bamberger, Rabbi Landman founded a Jewish farm colony in Utah. ...
- ^ a b "Jewish Editor Will Also Be Rabbi of a Brooklyn Congregation". New York Times. May 30, 1931.
Isaac Landman, editor of The American Hebrew and editor-in-chief of The Standard Jewish Encyclopedia, will return to the active ministry as rabbi of ...
- ^ a b c d "Rabbi Landman, 65, Reformist is Dead. Brooklyn Preacher a Leader in Hebrew-Christian Moves for Religious Friendship". New York Times. September 5, 1946.
Rabbi Isaac Landman of Congregation Beth Elohim, Brooklyn, president-elect of the Synagogue Council of America, editor of the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, director of the Academy for Adult Jewish Education and former editor of The American Hebrew, died ...
- ^ Cohen, Naomi W. The Americanization of Zionism, 1897-1948, University Press of New England, 2003, p. 68. ISBN 978-1-58465-346-2
- ^ Reich, Bernard, "The United States and Israel: The Nature of a Special Relationship", in Lesch, David W. The Middle East and the United States: A Historical and Political Reassessment (Fourth edition), Westview Press, 2007, p. 206. ISBN 978-0-8133-4349-5
- ^ "Zion, Ten Years After". Time magazine. April 4, 1932. Archived from the original on October 27, 2010.
Last week's money-gathering began importantly. Any Jew could be impressed by the following facts: Anniversary, Ten years ago next May the Lodge-Fish resolution, favoring the Jewish National Home, was introduced in Congress. In September it was approved by President Harding, became a public resolution.