Rabbi Bernard Segal, who served as a major official in all of the institutions of Conservative Judaism, died June 4 in a Jerusalem convalescent home at the age of 76. He was buried in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Segal, who had lived in Jerusalme since 1977, was executive director of the United Synagogue of America, the association of Conservative congregations, from 1953 to 1970 and its executive vice president until his retirement in 1976.
He had been assistant to the president of the Jewish Theological Seminary(JTS), the educational and rabbinical school of the Conservative movement from 1949 to 1951. He was a founder in 1957 of the World Council of Synagogues, the international agency of the movement. He was executive vice president of the JTS until 1953.
He was executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly of America, the association of Conservative rabbis, from 1945 to 1949.
Born in Lipno, Poland, he came to the United States in 1922. After graduation from Columbia University, in 1931, he studied at the JTS and was ordained in 1933.
He was in the Army from 1940 to 1946 and was the first Jewish chaplain called to active duty during World War II. As a colonel in the Army reserves, he was founding president of the Association of Jewish Chaplains.
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