Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver

Born Abraham Silver in Naumiestis, Lithuania, son and grandson of Orthodox rabbis, he was brought to the US at the age of nine. A Zionist from his youth he made his first speech at a Zionist meeting at age fourteen. Educated in the public schools and after-school Jewish schools of New York City's Lower East Side, he left after high school to attend the Hebrew Union College and the University of Cincinnati. After graduation as valedictorian of his HUC class—and now known as Abba Hillel Silver—and ordination in 1915, he served as rabbi of a small congregation, Leshem Shomayim now Temple Shalom (Wheeling, West Virginia).

In 1917, at age twenty-four, he become rabbi of The Temple in Cleveland, Ohio, one of the nation's largest, best known Reform congregations where he served for forty-six years. Abba Hillel Silver was an early champion of rights for labor, for worker's compensation and civil liberties, though his highest priorities were to advance respect for and support of Zionism. He was to do this first among Reform Jewish congregations, then by American Jewry, then by the American public and politicians, and last by the international community—the United Nations in particular. Silver was a keynote speaker in the allied Jewish Campaign to raise funds Jointly for Zionist projects in Palestine and European Jewry. Silver was one of the chief Zionist spokesmen appearing before the United Nations in the Palestine hearings of 2 October 1947 in what the Israeli government say is the acceptance speech,2 weeks before Moshe Shertok made the case for Israel on 17 October 1947. Mr. Moshe Shertok as head of Political Department of the Jewish Agency statement to Ad Hoc committee on Palestine Silver expressed reservations to the UN partition plan. Ultimately a practical man, Silver did accept partition as the only way to obtain a homeland for the Jewish people.

Abba Hillel Silver was a leading proponent for Zionism in America, meeting with President Truman several times until his bombastic manner caused friction, leading to alienation with the White House and him being barred from further meetings[4] and appearing on national television to announce to Americans the advancement of Israel. There is, however, no confirmation for the story of his pounding on Harry Truman's desk.

Silver, by mobilizing Jewish and non-Jewish support and his relationship with the Republican party which resulted in a pro-Israel plank in their party platform, gave Truman no choice but to support Israel and to recognize it immediately after it declared its independence.

A nationally-known orator and author of many scholarly works, he also served as head of many Jewish and Zionist organizations

View of Jesus by Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver:

The Jews did not reject the God concept of Jesus, for that was Jewish in essence and Jesus derived it from the Torah. “The New Testament adds nothing to the content of the ideas of God which is not already present in the literature and faith of Israel. It is often argued that Jesus held a unique conception of God, by which is usually meant the father hood of God. We have seen, however…that the divine characteristics which the term ‘fatherhood’ denotes are fully evident in the Old Testament.”

“In what way did the teaching of Jesus differ from that of his contemporaries?” query the editors of The Beginnings of Christianity, and they reply: “Not by teaching anything about God essentially new to Jewish ears. The God of Jesus is the God of the Jews, about whom he says nothing that cannot be paralleled in Jewish literature. Nor was it in his doctrine as to the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus differed markedly from the Jewish teachers