Emanuel Rackman

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Emanuel Rackman

Born June 24, 1910

Albany, New York

Died December 1, 2008 (aged 98)

New York

Nationality American

Other names (Menachem) Emanuel Rackman

‫מנחם עמנואל רקמן‬

Known for President of Bar-Ilan University

Rabbi (Menachem) Emanuel Rackman (Hebrew: ‫מנחם עמנואל רקמן‬ Menachem

'immanuel Raqman; June 24, 1910 in Albany – December 1, 2008) was an
American Modern Orthodox Rabbi, who held pulpits in major congregations and
helped draw attention to the plight of Refuseniks in the then-Soviet Union and
attempted to resolve the dilemma of the Agunah, a woman who cannot remarry
because her husband will not grant a Get, the required religious divorce decree that
would free her to remarry under Halacha. He was President of Bar-Ilan
University from 1977 to 1986.[1]

Biography[edit]
Rackman was born in Albany, New York on June 24, 1910. He graduated from
the Talmudical Academy in 1927, as its valedictorian.[2] Rackman asked for a one-
year deferral from Columbia University, and spent the entire year working
towards semicha at Yeshiva University (YU), where he was in the shiur of
Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik. The following year he started splitting his time, spending
half of each day at Columbia and the other half at YU. [2] He earned a bachelor's
degree from Columbia University in 1931 and was awarded a Bachelor of
Laws degree in 1933; He was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy from Columbia in
1953. During that time, he also studied for and received his semicha from the Rabbi
Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University, which was awarded in
1934, signed by Rabbis Bernard Revel and Moshe Soloveichik.[2][3]
Rackman practiced law for nine years before his religious service in the military.
During that period, he would serve for occasional weekends as a rabbi at
communities in Glen Cove and Lynbrook, New York.[3] Rackman entered service
during World War II in the United States Army Air Forces in 1943 as a chaplain. He
served as a military aide to the European Theater of Operations special adviser on
Jewish affairs, where his experiences with survivors of the Holocaust influenced his
decision to pursue the rabbinate.[4]
Rackman was the eighth in as many generations to earn rabbinic ordination, but the
first to earn a living as a rabbi. He said that "it was my father's hope that I would
continue the family tradition, insofar as I could be both learned in the Jewish tradition
while making a living in another way". [3]
In the 1950s, the United States Air Force Reserve denied Rabbi Rackman's security
clearance, citing him as a "bad risk". In a 1977 profile in The New York Times,
Rackman cited his opposition to the death penalty for Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg and his support for Paul Robeson as factors behind the decision. Offered
the opportunity to resign or face a military tribunal, the Rabbi chose a court martial,
where he was acquitted and was shortly thereafter promoted from major to lieutenant
colonel.[3]
Rackman served as Rabbi at Congregation Shaarey Tefila, then in Far Rockaway,
Queens, which granted him a lifetime contract in 1952. [5] In 1967, after 20 years at
Shaarey Tefilla, he accepted a position as Rabbi of the Fifth Avenue
Synagogue in Manhattan to succeed Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits, who had been
elected to serve as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the
Commonwealth.[6] He was elected by his peers as president of the New York Board
of Rabbis in 1955.[7] He also served as president of the Rabbinical Council of
America.[8]
After a trip to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in 1956 as part of a group from
the Rabbinical Council of America, Rackman was part of a group of New York-area
Rabbis who reported that their experience "leads us to the melancholy conclusion
that Judaism in Russia is seriously threatened with extinction", despite improvements
in the preceding years for Soviet Jewry. [9] The group noted that the conditions for
Jews in Poland were far better, with a government that was actively friendly with the
Jewish community there.[9]
In 1969, Rackman praised the JDL, claiming that in many instances "the Jewish
Defense League has demonstrated its ability to be the instrument presently required
by the Jewish community."[10]
In 1970, he was named as provost of Yeshiva University. He was the president
of Bar-Ilan University from 1977 until 1986, succeeding Max Jammer and succeeded
by Michael Albeck, and served as the school's chancellor until his death.[3][8][1]
Rackman worked to address the situation of agunot through the establishment in the
early 1990s of the Beit Din L'Ba'ayot Agunot (Court for the Problems of Chained
Women), which annulled the marriages of hundreds of women, freeing them to
remarry. The court, and its methodology, was widely criticized by other Orthodox
rabbis, many of whom would refuse to officiate at the marriage ceremonies of
women whose prior marriage had been ended by this form of annulment. Criticism
came from across the Orthodox spectrum, with the Haredi Agudath Israel of
America calling the court's halachic basis "spurious" and British Chief
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks claiming that Rackman's solution exacerbated the problem it
was trying to solve.[8]
 Personal[edit]
Rackman married the former Ruth Fishman in 1930. Rabbi Leo Jung, the bride's
uncle, officiated at the ceremony, held at the Jewish Center in Manhattan.[2] His son,
Rabbi Bennett Rackman, serves as chaplain at JFK Airport.[11]
Rackman died at age 98 on December 1, 2008. [8]

References[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to:    "Bar-Ilan Presidents | Bar Ilan University".
a b

.biu.ac.il. Retrieved  2020-02-21.

2. ^ Jump up to:        Butler, Menachem; and Nagel,
a b c d

Zev. "Reflections on Those Years: An Interview with

Rabbi Emanuel Rackman" Archived2008-12-05 at
the Wayback Machine, The Commentator, May 16, 2005.
Accessed December 4, 2008.
3. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Dugan, George. "Dean of Orthodox
Rabbis; Emanuel Rackman", The New York Times, March
3, 1977. Accessed December 4, 2008.
4. ^ Grimes, William. "Emanuel Rackman, Prominent Rabbi,
Dies at 98", The New York Times, December 4, 2008.
Accessed December 8, 2008.
5. ^ Staff. "Rabbi Gets Life Contract From Queens
Congregation", May 10, 1952. Accessed December 4,
2008.
6. ^ Dugan, George. "RACKMAN TO HEAD 5TH AVE.
TEMPLE; Leading Rabbi Taking Over Orthodox
Congregation", The New York Times, February 5, 1967.
Accessed December 4, 2008.
7. ^ Staff. "BINGO BY STATUTE OPPOSED BY RABBIS;
Board Here Asks Support of All Branches for Moral
Standards of Judaism", The New York Times, January 27,
1955. Accessed December 4, 2008.
8. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Harris, Ben. "Emanuel Rackman, leading
Orthodox thinker, dies at 98", Jewish Telegraphic Agency,
December 3, 2008. Accessed December 4, 2008.
9. ^ Jump up to:a b Salisbury, Harrison E. "U.S. Rabbis Fear
Soviet Jews Face Extinction of Religious Life; But Group
Back from Russian Visit Cites Some Progress in Last Two
Years—No Yiddish Institutions Found Hopeful of a Trend
Improvement Noted Poles Chide Soviet on Jews", The
New York Times, July 13, 1956. Accessed December 4,
2008.
10. ^ Kahane, Libby (2008). "May–December 1969". Rabbi
Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought Volume One: 1932-
1975. Israel: Urim Publishers. p.  134. ISBN 978-965-524-
008-5.
11. ^ "该页无法显示". Jfkshul.com. Retrieved  2020-02-21.

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