William M. Kramer

William Mordecai Kramer (March 29, 1920 – June 8, 2004) was an American rabbi, university professor and art collector. He served as the rabbi of Temple Beth Emet in Burbank, California from 1965 to 1996. He was an associate professor of religious studies at the California State University, Northridge for two decades, where he established the Jewish Studies program.

Early life William Mordecai Kramer was born in 1920 in Cleveland, Ohio.

He graduated from Case Western Reserve University. When he stepped down, he was replaced by Rabbi Mark H. Sobel. where he established the Jewish Studies program. the religion editor of The Los Angeles Times from 1951 to 1975. Thrapp regretted that the book was so "parochial" as it only dealt with the "American West" instead of the construct of the "frontier".

He was the co-editor of Western States Jewish History with Dr. Norton B. Stern. He called it, "a readable, well researched, biography of a gifted early San Francisco artist."

Acting career As an actor, he starred in The Seventh Sign, a 1988 biblical movie with Demi Moore.

Art collection

He was a collector of German Expressionist paintings. Verona, a 1951 print by Eugene Berman, Head by Max Weber and E. Weyhe, an untitled street scene by Ludwig Meidner, another untitled print by Jakob Steinhardt, and Adam and Eve by Max Beckmann. He also donated an engraving by Charles Turner titled The Fifth Plague of Egypt.

He was also a collector of Judaica. Most of this collection was donated by Kramer to the Skirball Cultural Center and the Western Jewish History Association.

Personal life He was married twice. His first marriage was to Joan Oppenheim Kramer, who died in 1980. They had two sons, Dr. Jonathan L. Kramer (b. 1954), and Jeremy S Kramer (b. 1955, d. 2006). He then married Betty Wagner Kramer, who was the widow of Rabbi Joseph Wagner.

Death He died of diabetes-related complications at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. He was eighty-four years old. He was buried at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Culver City, California, during a ceremony with Rabbi Sobel, Rabbis Toba August and Rabbi Michael Resnick.