David Lefkowitz (rabbi)

David Lefkowitz (April 11, 1875 – June 5, 1955), a rabbi, led Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas from 1920 to 1949, after having worked at Temple Israel in Dayton, Ohio. He opposed the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, which had been revived in 1915; it was strongly opposed to immigrants who were Jews and Catholics from eastern and southern Europe.

He and his wife Sadie bequeathed their collection to the Perkins School of Theology, which houses the "Sadie and David Lefkowitz Collection of Judaica". Sadie Lefkowitz was also active in the National Association of Temple Sisterhoods. A Mason, Rabbi Lefkowitz continued to attend meetings knowing that Klansmen were present. He discussed incidents of violence to convince other members that the Klan was inhibiting progress of their booming city.

David Lefkowitz was born in 1875 in Eperies, Hungary, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Together with his widowed mother and two brothers, he immigrated as a child about 1881 to New York City in the United States. Because his mother was struggling financially, she placed David and one of his brothers in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum for care. There they learned English, started school and grew up.

Lefkowitz graduated from City College of New York in 1894. He completed graduate studies at University of Cincinnati in 1899, and was ordained at Hebrew Union College in the same city in 1900.

After getting a permanent position as rabbi, in 1901 Lefkowitz married Sadie Braham of Cincinnati, Ohio. They had four children together: Lewis, Harry, Helen and David Jr.

David Jr. also became a rabbi. Later he was assistant to his father at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas from 1937 to 1940.

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