Moshe Zemer

Moshe Zemer was born in 1932 in Kansas City

Moshe Zemer was born Melvin Ray Zager in Kansas City, Missouri, on January 1, 1932, and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. After his mother died, his father placed him for adoption with his brother and sister-in-law, Shmuel and Sarah Zeger, in Omaha, Nebraska. In 1945 the family moved to Los Angeles, where he began religious studies at Temple Beth Shalom.

He earned a BA in psychology from UCLA in 1953. In 1960 he was ordained as a rabbi at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, where he also received a doctorate in Jewish studies. He then studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and served as rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Baltimore until 1963.

In 1963 he moved to Israel and became rabbi of Kehilat Ha'Sharon in Kfar Shmaryahu. He founded Emet Ve'Anava in Ramat Gan in 1964 and Congregation Kedem in Tel Aviv in 1968, which he led for 20 years. He served on the boards of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, worked with MARAM, and lectured on Halacha at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem.

In 1993 he published the book Sane Judaism, setting out his view of progressive Jewish law for modern life. He received an honorary doctorate from Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem in 2004. He died on November 3, 2011, and was buried at Kibbutz Kiryat Anavim, and MARAM gives an award in his name.