Levi Olan

Levi Arthur Olan (March 22, 1903 – October 17, 1984) was an American Reform Jewish rabbi, liberal social activist, author, and professor. Born in Ukraine in 1903, he grew up in Rochester, New York and was ordained at Hebrew Union College in 1929. He served as rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Worcester, Massachusetts from 1929 to 1948, and Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas from 1948 to his retirement in 1970. Olan was one of the most prominent liberal voices in Dallas, which was a predominantly conservative city. His views on poverty, war, civil rights, civil liberties and other topics were disseminated largely through his popular program on WFAA radio, and earned him the moniker, “the conscience of Dallas.” He also had a longstanding visiting professorship at Southern Methodist University and published numerous works on Judaism, process theology, and contemporary social issues.

Olan was born Lemel Olanovsky in 1903, near Cherkassy, Ukraine. His family fled pogroms for the United States—Olan and his mother joining his father in Rochester, New York when he was three. Olan stated in an interview that "his father shortened the family name to Olan at the suggestion of an immigration officer at Ellis Island." They settled in a Jewish neighborhood, where Olan’s father began working as a peddlar, eventually opening a grocery and dry goods store. The family was observant and Yiddish speaking; Olan's father was treasurer at a Lubavitch synagogue.

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