Public lifeאליעזר ברקוביץ

Eliezer Berkovits

Eliezer Berkovits was an Orthodox rabbi, theologian and educator who served communities on several continents and wrote 19 books on Jewish faith and law.

1908 to 1992Orthodox Jewish theologyWritings on Halakha and modernityThe Sinai encounter theologyRabbinates on four continents

Born: 8 September 1908, Oradea
Died: 20 August 1992, Jerusalem
Occupation: educator, rabbi, writer, Jewish theologian
Education: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary

Eliezer Berkovits was born in 1908 in Oradea

Eliezer Berkovits was born on 8 September 1908 in Oradea, then part of Austria-Hungary. His father was Rabbi Dov Berkovits. He studied at several yeshivas, including the Pressburg yeshiva in 1924.

He received rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Akiva Glasner and later studied at the rabbinical seminary in Berlin under Rabbi Yechiel Weinberg, who also ordained him. In 1933 he earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Berlin.

He served as a rabbi in Berlin from 1934 to 1939, in Leeds from 1940 to 1946, in Sydney from 1946 to 1950 and in Boston from 1950 to 1958. In 1958 he became head of the Jewish philosophy department at the Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois. In the United States he opposed boycotting the Reform and Conservative movements and initiated a conversion court in Denver run jointly by all streams.

His writings address Jewish faith, spirituality and law in dialogue with modern life, including Halakha in the Jewish state and on marriage and women. His theology centers on the meeting of God and humans at Mount Sinai. He received a National Jewish Book Award in 1975.

He later immigrated to Israel with his family and settled in Jerusalem, where he taught and wrote until his death on 20 August 1992. He had 3 sons.