Rabbi Jacob P. Rudin,  1902 - 1982

Rabbi Rudin was Rabbi of Temple Beth-El from 1930 to 1971

 By JACOB PHILIP RUDIN 

Introduction by ROLAND B. GITTELSOHN

Very Truly Yours is much more than an outstanding book of sermons—it is an eloquent expression of its author’s rare qualities as a warm human being and a courageous communal leader.

As Rabbi Gittelsohn so aptly sums it up in his touching Introduction, “though Rabbi Rudin possesses and uses a mind of extraordinary talent, basically he speaks from the heart to the heart. He speaks from his own anxieties and fears, doubts and love, to those of his congregants. They sense at once that there is something very genuine here, something learned not primarily from books but from life . . . This man writes eloquently, preaches powerfully. The key to his effectiveness, however, is not a matter of technique, but rather that the words he expresses mirror his life

“Coupled with his own life . . . as a resource from which he transmits immeasurable comfort and strength, is Jack’s passionate love of Judaism and the Jewish people. Constantly he draws upon the Hebrew Bible as well as post-biblical rabbinics for insights with which to illumine the matter at hand.”

But Rabbi Rudin is revealed in these pages not only as an eloquent and impassioned spokesman of Judaism but also as a fiery fighter for his principles as well as a brave defender of the rights of men of any conviction. His early repudiation of Joseph McCarthy; his stirring description of the first civil rights March on Washington, in which he participated; his wise words on Negro anti-Semitism, all included in these pages, bear witness to the courage, in and out of the pulpit, of Rabbi Rudin.

Together, these sermons, assembled to commemorate Rabbi Rudin’s completion of forty years as the spiritual leader of Temple Beth El of Great Neck, are an eloquent testimony to the stature of the man as a preacher whose motto is: If you do not love those to whom you preach, you will not preach successfully. If you do not care passionately, you will not convince your hearers that they should.”

RABBI JACOB PHILIP RUDIN is a graduate of Harvard College, class of 1924, with a B.A. degree, cum laude. He was ordained Rabbi in 1928 at the Jewish Institute of Religion, receiving the degree of M.H.L

From 1928 to 1930 he served as assistant to Rabbi Stephen S. Wise in the Free Synagogue of New York and in the Jewish Institute of Religion.

Rabbi Rudin became rabbi of Temple Beth-El of Great Neck in 1930 and served there until his retirement in 1971

In June 1942, Rabbi Rudin enlisted in the United States Navy Chaplains’ Corp and served for more than forty months, including duty in the Pacific and in the Aleutians.

Rabbi Rudin has been a very active communal leader and worker who has held offices in a variety of organizations, among them: President of the Hebrew Union College-Institute of Religion Alumni Association, President of the Association of Reform Rabbis of New York City and Vicinity, President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, President of the Synagogue Council America, Member of the Executive Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and Member of the Executive Board of the Urban Coalition.

He is the author of “A Children’s Haggadah”, “So You Like Puzzles” and numerous articles in religious periodicals.