OVERVIEW & USAGE

This collection is of value to researchers investigating rabbis and Reform Judaism in general, and in Cleveland, Ohio, in particular. Silver's opinions of the issues of the day, both secular and religious, unfold in his chronologically arranged collection of sermons. Subjects include the city of Cleveland, civil rights, busing, welfare and poverty, the Vietnamese Conflict, campus unrest, important individuals and events in Jewish history, Zionism and the Arab-Israeli conflicts, and issues in Reform Judaism. His subject files show the range of his involvement in activities outside the Temple with such organizations as Case Western Reserve University, where he taught in the Religion Department; the Cleveland Museum of Art; and the Jewish Community Federation, particularly the Public Welfare Committee. He held several positions in the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, and the Zionist Organization of America. He was an invited lecturer at many synagogues and churches in Cleveland and throughout the United States. Of note is a speech made at a memorial service at Kent State University one year after the 1970 deaths of three students there [MS-4850/25/9/327]. Also notable are correspondence between Silver and his father-in-law Eugene Zeidman, a Birmingham, Alabama, lawyer, and their discussion of the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham [MS-4850/30/10/405]. His many trips to Israel resulted in newspaper articles about his travels and the antiquities he found there. Silver's writings reflect his deep interest in the two historical figures named Moses: the biblical Moses and Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (1135-1204). Also of interest is his personal correspondence, including letters to and from his parents Virginia Horkheimer Silver (1907-1984) and Abba Hillel Silver (1893-1963) and letters written to him by congregants, fellow rabbis, and community leaders when he announced his illness in 1988 and condolence letters in 1989 and 1990. The collection also includes audio recordings of Silver’s sermons from 1956 to 1989.