Ferdinand M. Isserman

Ferdinand Myron Isserman (March 4, 1898 – March 7, 1972) was a Belgian-born American Reform rabbi who served as senior rabbi of Congregation Temple Israel in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1929 to 1963. He traveled to Nazi Germany three times during the 1930s and published early warnings about the persecution of German Jews. In Canada, he organized what has been described as the first pulpit exchange between a rabbi and a Christian minister in the British Empire.

Early life and education

Isserman was born on March 4, 1898, in Antwerp, Belgium, to Alexander and Bettl (Brodheim) Isserman. His family immigrated to the United States in 1906 and settled in Newark, New Jersey, where he attended public schools.

Isserman enrolled at Hebrew Union College (HUC) in Cincinnati in September 1914. In November 1962, Christ Church reciprocated with a sculpture by Robert Cronbach depicting Noah's rainbow. The pamphlet is held by the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum.

World War II service

During World War II, Isserman took a leave of absence from Temple Israel to serve as a field director with the American Red Cross during the Tunisian campaign with the First Armored Division in 1943. He received citations from the U.S. Treasury Department and the American Red Cross for his service. The congregation had purchased a 23.66-acre tract on April 28, 1954; two weeks later, a petition was filed to amend the zoning ordinance to prevent the synagogue from being built.

The Supreme Court of Missouri ruled on January 12, 1959, that Missouri's zoning laws did not authorize municipalities to exclude churches or schools from residential districts. In 1992, his widow and children established the Rabbi Ferdinand M. Isserman Prize at Washington University, awarded annually to a student contributing to interfaith activities.

His papers are held at the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati as the Ferdinand M. Isserman Papers (MS-0006), spanning 1870–1971. Notable correspondents in the collection include Albert Einstein and Senator Thomas Eagleton.

Honours and awards

Doctor of Laws (honorary), Douglass University, 1941 Doctor of Divinity (honorary), Central College, 1945 Doctor of Hebrew Letters (honorary), Hebrew Union College, 1950 Regional Clergyman of the Year, Religious Heritage of America, 1967 Distinguished Public Service Award, St. Louis Argus, 1968

Selected works

Sentenced to Death: The Jews in Nazi Germany (1933; revised edition, 1961) Rebels and Saints: The Social Message of the Prophets of Israel (Bethany Press, 1933) This Is Judaism (Willett, Clark & Company, 1944) The Jewish Jesus and the Christian Christ (1950; reprinted 1956) A Rabbi with the American Red Cross (1958)