Arnold Jacob Wolf
| Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf | |
|---|---|
| Position | Rabbi emeritus |
| Synagogue | K.A.M. Isaiah Israel Temple |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
March 19, 1924 Chicago, Illinois |
| Died | December 23, 2008 (aged 84) Chicago, Illinois |
| Denomination | Reform |
| Semicha | Hebrew Union College |
Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf (March 19, 1924 – December 23, 2008) was an important American Reform Rabbi, and a longtime champion of peace and progressive politics.
Wolf received an associate degree from the University of Chicago, a BA in philosophy from the University of Cincinnati. His rabbinical studies were at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and he was ordained in 1948. While at HUC, he served as secretary to Abraham Joshua Heschel.
He served a stint as an assistant to his uncle, Rabbi Felix Levy, at Temple Emanuel in Chicago, then he served as a Navy chaplain in Japan during the Korean War. A near crash in a seaplane that landed safely in the water was a life-altering experience.
In 1957 he helped launch Congregation Solel in Highland Park, Illinois, where he remained until 1972.
Rabbi Wolf marched in Selma, Ala., for civil rights and he traveled to Washington together with his temple members to protest the Vietnam War. In 1967, FBI agents attended and recorded one of his anti-war sermons.
Congregation Solel established an annual Holocaust remembrance weekends starting in the 1960s, making it one of the first synagogues in the United States to initiate the practice.
He was known for bringing speakers as diverse and contemporary as Rev. Martin Luther King and defendants in the Chicago Seven conspiracy trial.
He believed that "The core teaching of Torah for him had to do with justice, and one sometimes had to speak about that in ways that people didn't care to hear," and that "I am Adonai your God" was not a promise but a challenge to be lived up to every moment in every action."
He allowed his congregation to write its own prayer book and make decisions previously reserved for the rabbi. He endorsed the establishment of a membership cap at 400, which the congregation adopted, and banned bar mitzvahs.
After leaving Congregation Solel, Rabbi Wolf spent eight years as Jewish chaplain and Hillel director at Yale University, where he could have found an activist compatriot in Rev. William Sloane Coffin, the school's chaplain. In 1975 he was the first official Jewish representative ever invited to the World Council of Churches world assembly in Nairobi, Kenya
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