Kelman, Wolfe
KELMAN, WOLFE
KELMAN, WOLFE (1923–1990), U.S. rabbi and administrator. Born in Vienna, the scion of a Ḥasidic dynasty, Kelman's family moved to Toronto, Ontario, where he was educated in the public schools. He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War ii and earned a B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1946 and then entered the Jewish Theological Seminary, from which he was ordained in 1950.
At the urging of Chancellor Louis Finkelstein, Kelman became the director of the Rabbinical Assembly in 1951, a position that was variously called executive secretary, executive director, and finally as executive vice president. The titles changed but not the job. Under his leadership the Rabbinical Assembly grew from 300 rabbis to 1,200 in 12 countries. For the first 15 years of his tenure he served as the head of the Joint Placement Commission during a time of the most rapid expansion of the Conservative Movement, and thus became a matchmaker between rabbis and their congregations. He facilitated the placement of non-seminary graduates from Yeshiva University and even Torah Vadaat along with the seminary graduates. In total, he placed more than 1,500 rabbis in their positions.
Kelman's greatest contribution to the rabbinate was to ensure rabbis were paid a professional salary and that they and their families were treated with dignity. In one instance, Kelman threatened to stage a march of one hundred rabbis for the media if a particular congregation dared to cast a widow and her children out of the parish home without providing for them.
Kelman was a confidante of his teacher Abraham Joshua *Heschel throughout Heschel's and Rabbi Joseph Baer *Soloveitchik's negotiations with the Vatican and Pope Paul vi regarding Nostra Aetate. He also marched with Heschel in Montgomery and pleaded with him to make major addresses to White House Conferences on Education and Aging. Kelman mentored Elie *Wiesel when he was a young and relatively unknown rabbi.
Colleagues in other movements praised Kelman. The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion awarded him an honorary doctorate shortly before his death. Under his leadership the Rabbinical Assembly became economically viable, most especially from its publishing division. Toward the end of his career, he led the admission of women into the hitherto all male rabbinate.
From 1986 he served as the chairman of the American section of the World Jewish Congress. He was also the director of the Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies. The son of an Orthodox rabbi and the son-in-law of a Reform rabbi, Kelman was an early believer in religious pluralism. His own son Levi led a neo-Ḥasidic Reform Congregation in Jerusalem.
[Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)]