Isaac Landman (October 24, 1880 – September 4, 1946) was an American

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

, author and

anti-Zionist Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palest ...

activist. He was editor of the ten volume '' Universal Jewish Encyclopedia''.

Biography

Landman was born in Russia on October 4, 1880, to Ada and Louis Landman. He emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

in 1890. He graduated from the

Hebrew Union College. In 1911, with the assistance of Jacob Schiff,

Julius Rosenwald Julius Rosenwald (August 12, 1862 – January 6, 1932) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He is best known as a part-owner and leader of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and for establishing the Rosenwald Fund, which donated millions ...

, and

Simon Bamberger Simon Bamberger (February 27, 1845October 6, 1926) was the fourth Governor of Utah (1917–1921) after it achieved statehood from territorial status in 1896. Bamberger retains the distinction of being the first non-Mormon, the first Democrat, ...

, he founded a Jewish farm colony in

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

. In 1913 he married Beatrice Eschner. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

he was "said to be the first Jewish

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

to serve on foreign soil". He was a leader in Jewish–Christian ecumenism. He was editor of '' American Hebrew Magazine'' from 1918, served as the delegate of the

Union of American Hebrew Congregations The Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), known as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) until 2003, founded in 1873 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the congregational arm of Reform Judaism in North America. The other two arms established ...

to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Landman had also been a prominent opponent of

Zionism Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a Nationalism, nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is ...

: when, in 1922, the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washi ...

was considering the

Lodge–Fish resolution The Lodge–Fish Resolution was a joint resolution of both houses of the US Congress that endorsed the British Mandate for Palestine. It was introduced in June 1922 by Hamilton Fish III, a Republican New York Representative, and Henry Cabot Lodg ...

in support of the

Balfour Declaration The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman regio ...

, Landman and Rabbi

David Philipson David Philipson (August 9, 1862 – June 29, 1949) was an American Reform rabbi, orator, and author. The son of German-Jewish immigrants, he was a member of the first graduating class of the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. As an adult, h ...

had presented the Reform movement's (then)

position to the

House Committee on Foreign Affairs The United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, also known as the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is a standing committee of the U.S. House of Representatives with jurisdiction over bills and investigations concerning the foreign affairs ...

. Landman also printed many opinions against the resolution and Zionism in his ''American Hebrew Magazine''.Cohen, Naomi W. ''The Americanization of Zionism, 1897-1948'',

University Press of New England The University Press of New England (UPNE), located in Lebanon, New Hampshire and founded in 1970, was a university press consortium including Brandeis University, Dartmouth College (its host member), Tufts University, the University of New H ...

, 2003, p. 68. The bill was eventually unanimously supported by both houses of Congress,Reich, Bernard, "The United States and Israel: The Nature of a Special Relationship", in Lesch, David W. ''The Middle East and the United States: A Historical and Political Reassessment'' (Fourth edition),

Westview Press Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa plc, a United K ...

, 2007, p. 206. and approved by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...

Harding Harding may refer to: People *Harding (surname) *Maureen Harding Clark (born 1946), Irish jurist Places Australia * Harding River Iran * Harding, Iran, a village in South Khorasan Province South Africa * Harding, KwaZulu-Natal United Sta ...

. He became rabbi of Brooklyn's

Congregation Beth Elohim Congregation Beth Elohim ( he, בֵּית אֱלֹהִים), also known as the Garfield Temple and the Eighth Avenue Temple, is a Reform Jewish congregation located at 274 Garfield Place and Eighth Avenue, in the Park Slope neighborhood ...

in 1931. Three years later he began editing the '' Universal Jewish Encyclopedia'', which was published in ten volumes in the 1940s. He died on September 4, 1946. Landman was also a playwright. With his brother, physician Michael Lewis Landman, he authored the play ''A Man of Honor.'' Michael Landman's daughter was the architecture critic

Ada Louise Huxtable Ada Louise Huxtable (née Landman; March 14, 1921 – January 7, 2013) was an architecture critic and writer on architecture. Huxtable established architecture and urban design journalism in North America and raised the public's awareness of th ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Landman, Isaac 1880 births 1946 deaths Jewish American military personnel American Reform rabbis Jewish American writers Rabbis in the military United States Army chaplains