Susan Landau-Chark - Concordia University

6
Let us more deeply examine Rabbi Leffell’s spiritual background. After
graduating from McGill, Rabbi Leffell attended the Jewish Institute of Religion until
1950. Founded in 1922 by Rabbi Stephen Wise, the Institute was seen as a place where
students from a variety of backgrounds could engage in “training for the Jewish ministry,
research and community service.” 19 This openness to those from traditional backgrounds,
as well as the Institute’s pro-Zionist stance seemed a good fit for the young man from
Montreal, hailing from a Jewish community that through to the 1940's, “remained by and
large …. traditional.” 20
When Stephen Wise died in 1949, the merger between the Institute and Hebrew
Union College took place a year later in 1950. 21 Rabbi Leffell transferred to the Jewish
Theological Seminary at this time as he did not wish to be part of the Reform
movement. 22
When Rabbi Leffell moved over to JTS, the teaching staff was a scholar’s list of
‘Famous People’ in the Jewish world. The head of JTS was Louis Finkelstein, president
from 1940, becoming chancellor in 1951 23 , Mordechai Kaplan was on staff, as were Louis
Ginzberg, A.J. Heschel and Saul Lieberman, to name a few. 24
Rabbi Finkelstein saw Judaism as a pivotal force in the establishment of a world
Encyclopaedia Judaica, Volume 8 ( Jerusalem: The MacMillan Company, 1971): 217.
20
Op Cit. Tulchinsky (1998): 25.
21
Op Cit. Chayet 217.
22
Email received from J. Leffell, September 12, 2004.
23
Ibid. p.10.
24
The Seminary at 100: Reflections on the Jewish Theological Seminary and the
Conservative Movement, Ed Nina Beth Cardin and David Wolfe Silverman (New York,
NY: The Rabbinical Assembly and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1987).