February 10, 2025
In his new book Above All, We Are Jews: A Biography of Rabbi Alexander Schindler (CCAR Press, January 2025), Michael A. Meyer, Ph.D. ’64, Adolph S. Ochs Professor of Jewish History Emeritus, chronicles the life of the influential Reform movement leader who was president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for Reform Judaism) from 1973–1996, and who also served for several years as president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Rabbi Schindler (1925–2000) was a strong advocate for civil rights, gender equality, and a more inclusive Reform Movement.
Meyer, who has been a member of Hebrew Union College’s faculty since 1964, has won three Jewish Book Awards as the author of The Origins of the Modern Jew: Jewish Identity and European Culture in Germany, 1749-1824 (1967); Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism (1988); Jewish Identity in the Modern World (1990); and Rabbi Leo Baeck: Living a Religious Imperative in Troubled Times (2021). Among books he has edited are Ideas of Jewish History (1974); the four-volume German-Jewish History in Modern Times (1996-1998); Volume six of the collected writings of Leo Baeck (2003); and Joachim Prinz, Rebellious Rabbi: An Autobiography–the German and Early American Years (2007). He has also published more than two hundred articles and longer reviews. In 2023 Meyer received The Cross of Merit from the German government. He joined us from the Cincinnati campus to talk about his latest work.
Michael Meyer: I believe that Alexander Schindler was arguably the most significant leader of Reform Judaism, and in many ways of American Judaism, in the second half of the 20th century. And therefore, I had long felt that he was deserving of a comprehensive biography – which no one had undertaken before I decided to commit myself to that task.
Alexander Schindler was important in the sphere of Reform Judaism because he was the inspiration for a great period in its history. At a time when Reform Judaism first became the largest of the American Jewish denominations, Schindler had an extraordinary ability to inspire people, to convey an enthusiasm for Reform Judaism that was unparalleled. He was not a Reform Jew whose importance lay in other areas, like Abba Hillel Silver, or Stephen Wise, who were known for their Zionist activities, even though they were liberal rabbis. He was, rather, someone who devoted himself specifically to Reform Judaism, and to innovating—sometimes quite courageously, and controversially—elements that became part of the structure of Reform Judaism.
MM: In particular, he introduced a program of outreach in 1978, during his time as president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which continues today and which opened up Reform Judaism to a more welcoming path for couples in interfaith marriages. Schindler recognized as few did at that time that interfaith marriages were not something that you could just condemn and hope that therefore they would cease to exist. Instead, he believed that the way to deal with the issue was rather to welcome the non-Jewish partner in the hope that that individual would, in the end, be willing to convert to Judaism. He always said to rabbis, “Don’t forget to suggest to your congregants who are interested in Judaism that they should take the final step of conversion.” He himself did not officiate at interfaith weddings, but he recognized the right of his rabbinical colleagues to do so.
MM: With regard to African Americans, Schindler had personal relationships both with Andrew Young and with Jesse Jackson. He believed that it was important for Jews to have a close connection with the Black minority in the United States and build bridges toward them, because he recognized that they and we have common interests in creating a more just society in America.
Alexander Schindler was an advocate of women’s rights, though by the time that he became president of the Union in 1973, Sally Priesand had already been ordained at Hebrew Union College the previous year, so he didn’t have to push on that so much. But he did have to push on rights for gays and lesbians, particularly during the AIDS epidemic. And it took a while for Alexander Schindler, as he himself openly admitted, to overcome the prejudices of his time, and to become an advocate of gay rights, believing that gay and lesbian individuals should be respected for who they were, without any attempt to change their sexual orientation.
MM: Alexander Schindler is important as the first Reform rabbi to be elected as Chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which is the umbrella organization for virtually all Jews in the Unted States. He held that position at a very crucial time between 1976 and 1978, when American Jewry experienced a crisis. Why? Because at that time, in 1977, Menachem Begin became the prime minister of Israel. Schindler himself, and the majority of American Jews, had been supporters of the Labor party, of Golda Meir and of Yitzhak Rabin. And now, the prime minister of Israel was someone who came from a right-wing background and had engaged in what were considered terrorist activities. And therefore a gap emerged between the American Jews and the Israeli Jews, politically.
Amazingly, Alexander Schindler the liberal and Menachem Begin the rightist developed a close relationship that was able to bridge the gap. They developed remarkable respect for each other. It was a relationship that was based to a large extent on their common background in the world of East European Jewry. Rabbi Schindler’s father had been a Yiddish poet, and Schindler had a great deal of understanding not only for social justice, but also for the emotional element in Judaism. He drew not only on Jewish philosophy; he believed that it was also important for Reform Jews – as rationalistic as they might be – to have a sense for the mystical core of Judaism.
MM: The AJA here in Cincinnati possesses Rabbi Schindler’s extensive papers. I could not have done the book without that collection. I spent weeks and weeks sitting in the American Jewish Archives going through the many files that had been donated by the family. Without that, I would have had to rely on the published material, and it would have been a much more superficial biography than what I was ultimately able to write by going to material that was not in the public domain.
MM: What I learned, and what I think is important for the Reform Movement today, is the enthusiasm that Schindler expressed for Reform Judaism as the Judaism that makes the most sense in the modern world and has the greatest depth of feeling and aspiration. He was able to convey that enthusiasm to an extent that I hadn’t realized before I undertook this project.
One other thing had to do with Rabbi Schindler’s theology: he believed that faith in God is something that, if one removes it from Judaism and has a secular Judaism alone, one has cut the heart out of Jewish identity. For him, Jewish identity was focused on God as it was through all the ages. So, he stressed that the Shema Yisrael is something that cannot be removed from the Jewish liturgy without taking away what is fundamental to Judaism itself.
Schindler was a complicated individual in many ways. He was not a simple propagandist. He was thoughtful. He was also daring in suggesting possibilities like a missionizing program, for example. He believed that Jews should actively advocate for the Jewish faith. As he put it: “If you don’t have a mission, you are suspected of not having a message.” He believed that we Reform Jews have something to say, not only to our fellow Jews, but to the larger world. And that Judaism, he thought, should be formulated in such a way that it is broadly attractive.
