Rabbi Aryeh Lev Dead at 62

Funeral services were held today for Rabbi Aryeh Lev, director of the Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy of the National Jewish Welfare Board since 1945 who died Friday at University Hospital here after a brief illness, He was 62.

In 1972, Rabbi Lev received the Legion of Merit–the nation’s second highest award for non-combat service–for his “outstanding service” while serving with the 314th infantry, the Office of the Chief Chaplains, the Office of the First U.S. Army Chaplain, and the U.S. Army Chaplains School, on various overseas assignments and, “as the key military Religious Consultant to the Chiefs of Chaplains on all Jewish denominational matters.”

Rabbi Lev came to JWB Immediately after World War II. During the war, he was an army chaplain serving as the assistant to the Chief of Chaplains in the War Department. His specialty was plans and training as well as logistics. Throughout the war, Rabbi Lev served as liaison between the army and JWB on chaplaincy matters and then continued in the Army Reserves in the rank of Colonel until his retirement from the Army in 1972.

Born in Jerusalem, Rabbi Lev arrived in the U.S. in 1917, and was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1937. He became national director of Young Judea in 1940. It was from this post that he entered the chaplaincy and from there came to JWB.

Rabbi Lev, at his death, was on the Advisory Board of the Chief of Chaplains of the Air Force and of the Veterans Administration. He was chairman of the Rabbinical Pension Board, a board member of the Jewish Family Service, a member of the Joint Advisory Committee of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, and a member of the U.S. Committee for UNICEF.