Philip Horowitz (1922-2002) served as rabbi of Brith Emeth Congregation, Pepper Pike, OH, from its inception in 1959 until it closed in 1986. He was a man of considerable breadth: a scholar of classical and modern Hebrew, a Yiddishist, a teacher, and an advocate of human rights and liberal causes. Born Pinchas Horowitz, in 1922, in Vienna, Austria, he immigrated with his family to the United States in 1928. Following graduation from Yeshiva University Teachers College, in 1939, he received a B. A. from Yeshiva College, in 1942, and a M.A. from Columbia University, in 1945; and, in 1951, was ordained rabbi by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. From 1947-1952, Horowitz served as Education Director of the Forest Hills Jewish Center, Forest Hills, New York. From 1952-1959, he was Associate Rabbi and Minister of Education at the Euclid Avenue-Fairmount Temple, Cleveland, Ohio. Married to Sophia Newman, in 1947, they had three children: Ilana, Bethamie, and Daurielle. Sophia died in 1980. In 1985, he married Ruth Ratner Miller, who died eleven years later.
Notable among Horowitz's many educational activities were his positions as Visiting Professor of Theology, John Carroll University, 1968-1978 and Dean of College Seminars, National Federation of Temple Youth, 1962-1972. Recognition of his advocacy for human rights and liberal causes lead to his appointment as member of the Executive Commission, Ohio Civil Liberties Union, 1964-1970; member of Board of Directors of the Cleveland Council on Soviet Anti-Semitism; member of the Ohio Commission on Abortion Reform.
The Philip Horowitz Papers, 1932-2001 and undated, consist of correspondence, sermons and talks, newspaper clippings, personal papers, administrative records and program documents.
This collection is of value to researchers interested in the Reform rabbinate in the second half of the twentieth century and the Jewish community of Cleveland and northeast Ohio. Of particular interest to historians is the 1956-1957 correspondence related to the arrangements made by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the World Union for Progressive Jewry to send Rabbi Horowitz to Israel, as their representative, to institute liberal Judaism there.
The collection is arranged in two series.
The researcher should also consult MS 4747 Brith Emeth Temple Records.
Processed by Louis Rosenblum in 2005.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4943 Philip Horowitz Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of Ilana Horowitz Ratner.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.