Saul Berman

Saul J. Berman (born April 30, 1939) is a prominent American scholar and leading Modern Orthodox rabbi.

Rabbi Saul Berman speaking

As a rabbi, scholar, and educator he has made extensive contributions to the intensification of Jewish education for Jewish women on many levels, to the role of social ethics in synagogue life, and to the understanding of the applicability of Jewish Law to contemporary society.

Rabbi Berman was ordained at Yeshiva University, from which he also received his B.A. and his M.H.L. He completed a degree in law, a J.D., at New York University, and an M.A. in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied with David Daube. He spent two years studying mishpat ivri in Israel at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at Tel Aviv University.

Berman was the rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel (Berkeley, California) from 1963 to 1969, of Young Israel of Brookline from 1969 to 1971, and senior rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan, New York from 1984 to 1990. He has been a professor at Yeshiva University for many years and teaches a seminar at Columbia Law School.

Berman was the founder and director of the defunct Edah organization for the promotion of Modern Orthodoxy. Due to financial constraints, Edah was absorbed into the Yeshivat Chovevei Torah.

He is married to Shellee Berman, they have four children and seven grandchildren, (Shama and Rachel Berman + Shoshana, Adira, Ephraim and Adiv) (Efrath and Gal Levy + Natalie, Gabriel and Abigail) (Akiva) (Esther Golda and Rafi Lefkowitz) From the L.S.S. bulletin July 2011