Arthur Lelyveld

Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld (February 6, 1913 - April 15, 1996) was a rabbi within the movement of Reform Judaism and activist.

After marrying Toby Bookholtz, an actress and scholar of Shakespeare, Lelyveld moved to Omaha, Nebraska in 1941, where he led Temple Israel. In 1944, he then moved to New York, where he took on organizational rabbinic roles, including heading up the national Hillel organization. He served as a rabbi in Cincinnati for a time. He also served as president of the Zionist Organization of America from 1944.

From 1958 until 1986, Lelyveld served as rabbi of Fairmount Temple in the Cleveland suburb of Beachwood, Ohio. From 1966 to 1972, he was president of the American Jewish Congress, a 50,000-member organization. He served as president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and of the Synagogue Council of America.

Lelyveld retired from the rabbinate in 1986 and died on April 15, 1996.

During the Second World War Lelyveld was a pacifist and conscientious objector, though he did propose sending a Jewish relief force to Europe. He headed the Jewish Peace Fellowship, a coalition, formed in 1941, of a number of groups of Jewish antiwar activists.

Lelyveld voiced his support for the recognition of the State of Israel and was the executive director for the Committee on Unity for Palestine. in 1946, lobbying Harry S Truman to that end. He was also active in attempts to create harmonious relations between Jews and blacks in the United States. While he was in Omaha, he was a member of the local Urban League. He was also active in the registration of black voters in the South during the 1960s. During the Freedom Summer of 1964 he suffered a concussion when he was beaten with a tire iron by segregationists in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

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