Silver Honored Among Thirty ‘key’ Citizens

by Dr. Thwing

Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver of the Temple of this city was named as one of the thirty outstanding citizens of Cleveland by Dr. Charles F. Thwing, president emeritus of Western Reserve University. Rabbi Hillel is the only Jew on the list.

Dr. Thwing was invited to pick these thirty key citizens from a list of 219 names of important, leading, and best known Clevelanders whose names appeared in the Cleveland papers during the past year. His opinion was sought because he has seen the city grow and he knows the part which these thirty citizens have played in the advancement of the city.

Rabbi Silver, who was selected as one of the leading religious and civic leaders of Cleveland, is an internationally known figure. Besides being the leader of the Temple, one of the largest Liberal Jewish congregations of America, he is a member of the Executive Committee of the World Zionist Organization and of the Council of the Jewish Agency. He is on the National Child Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Committee on Militarism in Education and is the vice-president of the Consumers’ League of Ohio.

He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Hebrew Union College, the Commission of the Hillel Foundation, and president of the Cleveland Bureau of Jewish Education.

Rabbi Silver is the author of “Messianic Speculations in Israel,” “The Democratic Impulse in Jewish History,” and “Religion in a Changing World.”