Judah Nadich
Encyclopedia
Rabbi
Judah Nadich (May 13, 1912 – August 26, 2007), was a Conservative Rabbi, who served congregations in Buffalo and Chicago, and later was the U.S. Army's senior Jewish chaplain in Europe while Allied forces were liberating Nazi concentration camps, and later was the President of the Rabbinical Assembly
, the international association of Conservative rabbis.
He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the eldest child of Isaac and Lena Nathanson Nadich, who had emigrated from Russia in the early 1900s. His father owned a grocery store. Rabbi Nadich's mother died when he was 7, and he and his two sisters were raised by their stepmother, Nettie Gifter Nadich, an immigrant from Lithuania. Isaac and Nettie also had a daughter together.
In 1936, four years after graduating from City College, Rabbi Nadich earned a master's degree in history from Columbia University
and was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary
. He led Conservative congregations in Buffalo and in Chicago before enlisting in the Army as a chaplain in 1942.
"In 1945, when he was a lieutenant colonel in the Army and its senior Jewish chaplain in Europe, and when the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps were being fully revealed, Rabbi Nadich was named to the new post of Jewish adviser to [General] Dwight Eisenhower "to offer advice on how to cope with hundreds of thousands of displaced persons being kept in military custody in squalid conditions little better than the camps they had survived. In a 1953 book, Eisenhower and the Jews, Rabbi Nadich wrote that he and others persuaded the Allied command to abandon a policy requiring the displaced to be returned to their home countries."
In 1947, Rabbi Nadich married Martha Hadassah Ribalow. He served at Congregation Kehillath Israel in Brookline, Mass., for 10 years, and then, from 1957 until his retirement in 1987, he served as rabbi of New York's Park Avenue Synagogue. There, Nadich "helped develop a strong educational after-school program, which is now called the Rabbi Judah Nadich Hebrew High School."
As President of the Rabbinical Assembly, in 1974, he called on the movement's Law Committee to "give careful consideration" to his proposal to admit ordained women, which eventually occurred in 1985. He died in New York City
on August 26, 2007 at the age of 95.
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...
Judah Nadich (May 13, 1912 – August 26, 2007), was a Conservative Rabbi, who served congregations in Buffalo and Chicago, and later was the U.S. Army's senior Jewish chaplain in Europe while Allied forces were liberating Nazi concentration camps, and later was the President of 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 international association of Conservative rabbis.
He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the eldest child of Isaac and Lena Nathanson Nadich, who had emigrated from Russia in the early 1900s. His father owned a grocery store. Rabbi Nadich's mother died when he was 7, and he and his two sisters were raised by their stepmother, Nettie Gifter Nadich, an immigrant from Lithuania. Isaac and Nettie also had a daughter together.
In 1936, four years after graduating from City College, Rabbi Nadich earned a master's degree in history 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...
and was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary
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...
. He led Conservative congregations in Buffalo and in Chicago before enlisting in the Army as a chaplain in 1942.
"In 1945, when he was a lieutenant colonel in the Army and its senior Jewish chaplain in Europe, and when the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps were being fully revealed, Rabbi Nadich was named to the new post of Jewish adviser to [General] Dwight Eisenhower "to offer advice on how to cope with hundreds of thousands of displaced persons being kept in military custody in squalid conditions little better than the camps they had survived. In a 1953 book, Eisenhower and the Jews, Rabbi Nadich wrote that he and others persuaded the Allied command to abandon a policy requiring the displaced to be returned to their home countries."
In 1947, Rabbi Nadich married Martha Hadassah Ribalow. He served at Congregation Kehillath Israel in Brookline, Mass., for 10 years, and then, from 1957 until his retirement in 1987, he served as rabbi of New York's Park Avenue Synagogue. There, Nadich "helped develop a strong educational after-school program, which is now called the Rabbi Judah Nadich Hebrew High School."
As President of the Rabbinical Assembly, in 1974, he called on the movement's Law Committee to "give careful consideration" to his proposal to admit ordained women, which eventually occurred in 1985. He died in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on August 26, 2007 at the age of 95.