Irving Miller Dead at 77

Funeral services were held last Friday for Rabbi Irving Miller, a leading American Zionist, who died last Wednesday in Woodmere, Long Island at the age of 77. In addition to his role in the Zionist movement, Miller also played a leading role in discussing Jewish postwar problems with representatives of the Allied governments in London in 1943.

In 1942 Miller was elected chairman of the executive committee of the American Jewish Congress. Upon the death of Rabbi Stephen Wise, founder and first president of the AJCongress, Miller” succeeded him. He also served as president of the Zionist Organization of America from 1952 to 1954. In 1961 he was elected president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization.

During his many years in the Zionist movement, Miller was also a member of the World Zionist Organization Actions Committee, was a delegate to the founding conference of the World Jewish Congress in 1936 in Geneva, and was chairman of the American Zionist Council.

Born in Kovno, Lithuania, Miller came to the United States at the age of nine. He attended City College in New York City and studied theology at Yeshiva College. He also studied at the University of Pittsburgh and completed work for his bachelor’s degree at Columbia University.

He became a rabbi in 1926 and was rabbi of Congregation Sons of Israel in Woodmere from 1946 to 1952 and subsequently became its rabbi emeritus. Previously he was a rabbi of Congregation Shaaray Tefila of For Rockaway, Queens and also served as rabbi in congregations in Youngstown, Ohio and Chelsea, Mass. During World War II, Miller served as secretary general of the World Jewish Congress, undertaking missions on behalf of European Jewry threatened by Nazism. He was also a member at the Board of Directors of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.