A funeral service was held today at Central Synagogue for Rabbi Daniel L. Davis, former director of the New York Federation of Reform Synagogues, who died Thursday in his home in Ghent, NY, at the age of 70. Born in Baltimore, he graduated from the Johns Hopkins University and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, where he was ordained a rabbi in 1926. In 1958 the college conferred on him an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Rabbi Davis became director of the 115-member Reform synagogues federation in 1947 and retired from the Union of American Hebrew Congregations affiliate in 1972. He was the founding father of at least 90 of the federation’s synagogues and many others throughout the country. Before coming to the federation, Rabbi Davis was rabbi of Temple Beth El in Hammond, Ind. Later he was rabbi of Congregation Shaarai-Shomayim in Lancaster, Pa. He was author of many pamphlets on Reform-Liberal-Progressive Judaism including the widely circulated "Understanding Judaism." The latter text was used by Jews and non-Jews, particularly those attending conversion courses.
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