Arthur Lelyveld

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Arthur J. Lelyveld (February 6, 1913 – April 15, 1996) was a Reform Jewish rabbi and activist who led major Jewish organizations and worked for civil rights. He was born in Manhattan, New York. He finished at Columbia College in 1933, becoming the first Jewish editor of the Columbia Daily Spectator, and also leading the glee club and wrestling team. He earned his rabbinic degree from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 1939.

He first married Toby Bookholtz, an actress and Shakespeare scholar. In 1941 they moved to Omaha to lead Temple Israel. In 1944 he moved to New York to take on national rabbinic roles, including leading the Hillel movement, and he became president of the Zionist Organization of America. He also served as a rabbi in Cincinnati for a time.

From 1958 to 1986 he was the rabbi of Fairmount Temple in Beachwood, a Cleveland suburb. He led the American Jewish Congress from 1966 to 1972 and also headed the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Synagogue Council of America. After retiring in 1986, he taught Jewish thought at John Carroll University. He later married Teela Stovsky, and that marriage lasted 35 years.

Lelyveld was a committed peace and civil rights activist. During World War II he was a pacifist and conscientious objector, but he helped form the Jewish Peace Fellowship. He supported recognizing Israel and lobbied President Truman in 1946. He worked to improve Jewish–Black relations, helped register Black voters in the South, and was injured during Freedom Summer in 1964.

He and his families had five children. His son Joseph Lelyveld became executive editor of The New York Times and won a Pulitzer Prize; another son, David, is a history professor, and his other children include Michael, Robin, and Benjamin (who died in 1988). Lelyveld died of a brain tumor in Beachwood, Ohio, in 1996. His funeral at Fairmount Temple drew more than 1,200 mourners, with condolences from Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. He is buried in Mayfield Cemetery in Cleveland Heights.