Michael A. Meyer is the author of Above All, We Are Jews: A Biography of Rabbi Alexander Schindler, now available from CCAR Press. In this excerpt from the preface, he highlights the life and legacy of one of Reform Judaism’s most impactful leaders.
Rabbi Alexander Moshe Schindler (1925–2000) was a central figure within American Judaism whose significance has yet to be fully understood. His successor as president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC, now called Union for Reform Judaism, or URJ), Rabbi Eric Yoffie, believes he was the “last great national leader of American Jewry.”1 His good friend for many years but frequent political adversary, Henry Kissinger, called him “a preeminent figure of conscience and leadership, not only within the American Jewish community, but for all concerned with human issues around the globe.”2
It was Alexander Schindler who brought Reform Judaism to the height of its influence. Within a favorable American environment, his charisma and vision allowed it to grow to its maximum size and energy. Whereas other well-known Reform Jews of the twentieth century, such as Rabbis Stephen Wise and Abba Hillel Silver, gained their fame on account of their Zionist advocacy, Schindler’s reputation rests in large measure upon his activism within the congregational union of Reform Judaism.
With passion and effect, he brought into existence an institutional structure that reached out to Jews on the periphery of Jewish life and welcomed them into the religious community. Unafraid of lively debate—indeed nourishing it—he recognized that the unprecedented increase in interfaith marriages demanded acceptance of the intermarried rather than rejection if Jewish life within an enticing American society were to flourish. Although more traditional Jews objected vociferously, he advocated acceptance of patrilineal descent as a marker of Jewishness so that children whose fathers alone were Jewish would not be lost to the faith. Though with less success, he likewise sought to strengthen the Jewish community with an influx of non-Jews coming from outside its sphere, who would be drawn to its faith and customs.
Schindler was a highly controversial figure not only with regard to the institutional changes he advocated within Reform Judaism but also with regard to his independent stand in relation to the policies of Israel. He was the first Reform leader to also be a principal leader of American Jewry as a whole. Elected as a Reform rabbi to chair the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in 1976, he was widely respected across the religious spectrum. When, during Schindler’s term as chair, Menachem Begin was elected prime minister of Israel, Schindler was able—against all expectations—to bridge the gap between a liberal American Jewry and a prime minister whose views on the State of Israel lay far to the right. Schindler’s own opinions on Israel combined a deeply felt Zionism with a willingness to discard a tradition that American Jews should always blindly accept current Israeli policies. He saw the Diaspora as having an ineluctable responsibility to share in shaping the Israeli future.
He was a talented and effective speaker, listened to by his rabbinical colleagues, by the Reform laity, and by government officials in the United States and Israel. By conviction and practice a Reform Jew and critical of Orthodox rigidity, he nonetheless regarded other forms of Judaism with due respect. He defined himself and wanted to be remembered as an ohev Yisrael, a lover of the Jewish people in its totality.
Unafraid of espousing causes unpopular among many American Jews and non-Jews, Schindler spoke out for LGBTQ rights, full racial equality, and a clear separation of church and state. He had close connections with a range of key civil rights leaders, including Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, Roy Wilkins, and Bayard Rustin. Never cowed into suppressing his opinions, he dealt forcefully with American presidents and legislators.
Yet, despite these markers of significance, to this day there is no published Schindler biography.3 I have given voice not only to Schindler’s admirers but also to those who were critical of him or his policies. Here and there I have also included my own critical remarks. Like all significant figures, Schindler had professional and personal shortcomings. Despite my respect for him as a person and a leader, I have sought to achieve a balanced account. It is my hope that these pages will enable future generations to better judge and appreciate Rabbi Schindler’s place in Jewish history.
Notes
1. Conversation with Rabbi Eric Yoffie on November 27, 2022.
2. Henry A. Kissinger, “A Tribute,” in The Jewish Condition: Essays on Contemporary Judaism Honoring Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, ed. Aron Hirt-Manheimer (New York: UAHC Press, 1995), ix.
3. There are, however, at the Klau Library of Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati two unpublished rabbinical theses that deal with aspects of Schindler’s career: Karen Companez, “Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler: A Thematic Biography” (2002) and Lynne Goldsmith, “Bridge to the Future: Alexander Schindler and His Influence on the Development of Reform Judaism’s Outreach Program” (2007).
Michael A. Meyer holds a doctorate in Jewish history from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, where he served as professor of Jewish history for fifty years. He is the author of Above All, We Are Jews: A Biography of Rabbi Alexander Schindler from CCAR Press.
