Funeral services were held here today for Rabbi Israel Elfenbein, the noted scholar and education director of the Religious Zionists of America who died here yesterday at the age of 74.
Rabbi Elfenbein was born in Austria and came to the United States in 1906. He attended the Jewish Theological Seminary and New York University, and held pulpits at synagogues in Tennessee, Illinois and New York. His first rabbinate was at Temple Adath Israel in Hasville in 1915-16.
He was former editor of the weekly, Voice of the People and the author of many books including “The World of Rashi,” “Maimonides, The Man and His Times,” “Palestine Under Turkish Rule as Reflected in Response Literature,” “Problems of Jewish Reconstruction in America” and “The Synagogue as a Leavening Force in American Jewry;” For the past 24 years, Rabbi Elfenhein was the editor of Or Hamizrach, a Hebrew publication for rabbis, teachers and students.
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