André Ungar (July 21, 1929 – May 5, 2020) was a Hungarian-born

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...

, doctor of

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

liturgist Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

social activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from ...

, and

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 t ...

who lived in

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South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and the

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. He was a rabbi at Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley in Westwood and later Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey for 44 years.

Life

Ungar was born and raised in a prosperous Orthodox family in Budapest. The family survived the Holocaust by going into hiding under pseudonyms in a non-Jewish quarter of the city. In January 1955 he arrived to take up an appointment as rabbi of the Jewish Reform Congregation in

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

. He considered Jewish opposition to apartheid was mandatory in terms of what they themselves had experienced during the Holocaust. In November 1956, he openly took a stand against the

Group Areas Act Group Areas Act was the title of three acts of the Parliament of South Africa enacted under the apartheid government of South Africa. The acts assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a syste ...

which racialized urban residential planning, arguing it was akin to the ghettoization he had himself experienced in Hungary. He further criticized South African Jews for what he considered to be the neglect of their moral responsibilities in failing to challenge apartheid, writing:-

Personal memories of oppression must still be vivid in the minds of very many. There can hardly be a Jewish family in South Africa that has not lost near relations when Hitler’s racialism reached its logical culmination in mass slaughter. Both through cruel oppression in the tumult of many centuries, and through recent personal experiences and involvements, the Jews of South Africa should be historically and psychologically well equipped to recognize oppression and persecution whenever they occur, stand by the victims, and fight against those who by action or connivance, through inhumanity or stupidity or both, help maintain such a system.'

He subsequently found himself in conflict with members of his own congregation and more broadly, with the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and resigned his post in October 1956. Shortly afterwards the South African government revoked his temporary residence permit, and he was given six weeks to leave the country. Soon after he was appointed rabbi to the St. George’s Settlement Synagogue in

Whitechapel Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...

. After a brief stint at a new synagogue,Temple Emanuel in Toronto, where his version of conservative orthodoxy grated with the congregation's Reform expectations, he took up a post at Temple B'Nai Abraham in Newark under rabbi Joachim Prinz from 1959 to 1961. He then became the Rabbi for a conservative suburban temple in Westwood NJ (later Woodcliff Lake) - Temple Emanuel of Pascack Valley where was a revered figure for forty-four years on the bimah. Rabbi Ungar was the author of ''Living Judaism'' (Reform Synagogue of Great Britain: 1958), and ''Judaism for Our Time'' (RSGB: 1973); and various articles on the subject of

Jewish philosophy Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until the modern ''Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconc ...

. His alternative, poetic translations of the

Amidah The ''Amidah'' (, ''Tefilat HaAmidah'', 'The Standing Prayer'), also called the ''Shemoneh Esreh'' ( 'eighteen'), is the central prayer of Jewish liturgy. Observant Jews recite the ''Amidah'' during each of the three services prayed on week ...

have appeared in all editions and versions of Siddur Sim Shalom, of the

Conservative Jewish Conservative Judaism, also known as Masorti Judaism, is a Jewish religious movements, Jewish religious movement that regards the authority of Jewish law and tradition as emanating primarily from the assent of the people through the generations ...

denomination.

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* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ungar, Andre 1929 births 2020 deaths Hungarian Jews 20th-century Hungarian philosophers Jewish philosophers 21st-century Hungarian philosophers