1. Ben-Zion Bokser was a major Conservative rabbi in the United States.
16 Facts About Ben-Zion Bokser
1. 2.
Ben-Zion Bokser immigrated to the United States at the age of 13 in 1920.
3.
Ben-Zion Bokser attended City College of New York and Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Theological Seminary, followed by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and Columbia University.
4.
Ben-Zion Bokser taught for many years as an adjunct professor of political science, Queens College, City University of New York.
5.
Ben-Zion Bokser served as the rabbi of Forest Hills Jewish Center in Queens, New York, starting in 1933 and remained in that position for the balance of his career, more than fifty years.
6.
Ben-Zion Bokser served a two-year period as a United States Army chaplain during World War Two, stationed at Camp Miles Standish in Massachusetts.
7.
Ben-Zion Bokser fought against the death penalty in New York state.
8.
Ben-Zion Bokser served as a program editor for the Eternal Light, the Jewish Theological Seminary's radio program; a lecturer on homiletics; and a participant in the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion and the Institute for Religious and Social Studies, both seminary-run programs.
9.
Ben-Zion Bokser heard Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook speak in New York in 1924 and became an avid student and great proponent of his teachings.
10.
Ben-Zion Bokser's son was the scholar of Rabbinic Judaism, Baruch Bokser.
11.
Ben-Zion Bokser stressed the rabbinic sages and the Talmud as the source of Judaism.
12.
Similar to Heschel, Ben-Zion Bokser affirms revelation and even the special status of Sinai, but revelation is always framed in humans by man.
13.
Ben-Zion Bokser argued that Christian antisemitism had desensitized Germans to the heinous character of Nazi propaganda.
14.
Rabbi Ben-Zion Bokser was active in the Rabbinical Assembly of America, and was a member of its Committee on Jewish Law and Standards.
15.
Ben-Zion Bokser is most famous for writing the minority report 1951 responsa against driving to synagogue on the Sabbath.
16.
Ben-Zion Bokser's synagogue was still traditional to the point that he received a public outcry in the local press and letters to him.