Mandelbaum, Bernard
MANDELBAUM, BERNARD
MANDELBAUM, BERNARD (1922–2001), U.S. rabbi, educator, community leader, administrator. Mandelbaum spent the better part of his professional life as one of the most important figures in the Conservative movement in the 20th century. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, received a B.A. degree from Columbia University in 1942, and was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary (1946), obtaining there a Doctor of Hebrew Letters degree in 1953.
Following his ordination, Mandelbaum spent 27 years at the seminary serving, inter alia, as professor of homiletics, instructor of Midrash, registrar and dean of students at its Rabbinical School, director of the seminary's department of religion and psychiatry, World Brotherhood, American Student Center in Jerusalem and Schocken Institute for Jewish Research, and program editor of The Eternal Light, an nbc television show. Mandelbaum, ultimately, became provost and, in 1966, in anticipation of the retirement of Louis *Finkelstein as chancellor, was elected to serve as president of the seminary, seemingly anointed as Finkelstein's successor.
While already in the mid-1950s there were stirrings within the Conservative movement to reform the prayer book and introduce a full measure of egalitarianism at worship services, 1966 became a fateful year for the seminary as it searched for a replacement of Finkelstein as chancellor. Two factions among the conservative leadership arose, one which supported Mandelbaum for the chancellorship, not only because of his intellectual credentials, proven leadership and dedicated service to the seminary, but because he was fully committed to preserving the traditional roots of Conservative Judaism. The stronger faction aspired to bring to the seminary a worthy leader who would be more amenable to the changes they sought, such as the ordination of women, through a more liberal interpretation of the halakhah. When Dr. Gerson D. *Cohen was selected over Mandelbaum as chancellor, the stage was set for an accelerated ideological shift in Conservatism.
Mandelbaum became president emeritus of the seminary in 1973, and accepted leadership roles, thereafter, in the American-Israel Cultural Foundation, serving as its president (1973–77) and then as executive vice president of the Synagogue Council of America and director of its Institute for Jewish Policy Planning and Research.
Among his published works are Assignment in Israel (1960); Pesikta De Rav Kahana: A Critical Edition (1962); The Maturing of the Conservative Movement (1968); To Live With Meaning (1973); Add Life To Your Years (1974); Art and Judaism: Conversation Between Yaakov Agam and Bernard Mandelbaum (1981); and From the Sermons of Milton Steinberg, 2 volumes (1954–63).
bibliography:
Pamela Nadell, Conservative Judaism in America (1988).
[Stanley M. Wagner (2nd ed.)]