Services were held here today for Dr. Edward L. Israel, newly elected executive director of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and president of the Synagogue Council of America, who died here yesterday of a heart attack as he arose to speak at a meeting of the Union’s executive board.
Rabbi Israel, who was 45 years old, was to be installed into his new office at the meeting. He had resigned recently as Rabbi of Har Sinai Congregation in Balti-more to become the executive director of the Union. In his new post he would have been one of the principal leaders of liberal Judaism in America.
Born in Cincinnati, Rabbi Israel received his rabbinical degrees from the University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College. Washington College conferred an honorary doctorate of law upon him in 1939. He was a member of the executive of the American Jewish Congress, a member of the executive of the Zionist Organization of America and vice-president of the League for Labor Palestine. He also was active in the field of unemployment insurance and stabilizing employment and public housing, and was a member of the 1939 White House Conference on Children in Democracy.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
