Louis Finkelstein

Louis Finkelstein (June 14, 1895, Cincinnati , Ohio – 29 November 1991) was a Talmud scholar and expert in Jewish law .¹ He taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America , the first American seminary of Conservative Judaism . He was awarded a doctorate from Columbia in 1918, became a rabbi in 1919, and after many years as professor of theology at the Jewish Theological Seminary he was appointed Chancellor in 1940. He authored a number of books, including Tradition in the Making, Beliefs and Practices of Judaism , Pre-Maccabean Documents in the Passover Haggadah, Abot of Rabbi Nathan , (a three volume series on The Pharisees ), and Akiba: Scholar, Saint and Martyr . He also edited a three volume series entitled The Jews: Their History (vol 1), Their Religion and Culture (vol 2), Their Role in Civilization (vol 3). Goldman on November 30, 1991 read in part: Dr. Louis Finkelstein, chancellor emeritus of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the dominant leader of Conservative Judaism in the 20th century, died yesterday at his home in Manhattan. He was 96 years old. Finkelstein died after a long bout with Parkinson's disease, a spokesman for the seminary said. Finkelstein, a prolific scholar, was the head of the seminary, the intellectual center of Conservative Judaism, from 1940 to 1972. It was a period of extraordinary growth within the movement, as thousands of Jews living in America's cities moved to the suburbs and joined and built Conservative synagogues. In the postwar period, the Conservative movement emerged as the branch of Judaism with the largest number of synagogues and members. It steers a middle course between the two other main movements in modern Judaism, Reform and Orthodoxy , espousing both fidelity to Jewish tradition and adapting Jewish religious practice and ritual norms to modern realities.²