JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

eisenberg, shoul
Bibliography: A. Yaari, Goodly Heritage (1958), 191–8, 217; E.
Ha-Dani (ed.), A.E. Eisenberg (Heb., 1947); M. Smilansky, Mishpaḥat
ha-Adamah, 1 (1953), 116–27.
[Yehuda Slutsky]
EISENBERG, SHOUL (1921–1997), industrialist and philanthropist.
Born in Munich, Eisenberg fled from Germany in
1938 and eventually settled in Japan. At the end of the war he
laid the foundations of his worldwide industrial empire. In Japan,
his companies became principal suppliers of raw materials
for the country’s steel industries and partners in a number
of shipping enterprises. In South Korea, Eisenberg Companies
developed many of its major industries. Eisenberg was the
leader of the Tokyo Jewish community and he built its synagogue.
He also made many gifts for projects in Israel where
he and his family settled in the 1960s. An active participant in
the economic conference called by the Israeli government in
1968, he established two large exporting companies. In 1980 he
gained control of the Israel Corporation, one of Israel’s large
investment companies, which after his death was sold to the
Ofer brothers in 1999. In 1978 he began to operate in China,
with projects worth around $1 billion.
[Morton Mayer Berman / Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]
EISENDRATH, MAURICE NATHAN (1902–1973), U.S.
rabbi and leader of Reform Judaism. Eisendrath was born in
Chicago, Illinois, and received rabbinic ordination from Hebrew
Union College, Cincinnati. After serving in pulpits at the
Virginia Street Temple in Charleston, West Virginia (1926–29)
and at Holy Blossom Toronto (1929–43), he established a towering
reputation in Toronto, where he was involved in a weekly
radio program at a time when radio was the dominant media
of its age. Forum on the Air gave him prominence in Canada
well beyond his own community. He used his forum to advance
the ideas of prophetic Judaism, to push for anti-poverty
assistance, to advocate civil rights and social justice, and to
condemn the growing menace of Nazism.
In 1943, Eisendrath came to the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations first as the interim director while Nelson
Gleuck was away and later as the director and finally as its
president, a position he held for almost three decades. During
his administration the Reform movement grew in membership
and changed its direction perceptibly. So too did Eisendrath.
A committed pacifist at the beginning of his career,
Eisendrath was forced to change his mind by Nazism, which
could only be combated by force. He took Reform Judaism
from an anti-Zionist movement, with some Zionist rabbis,
into a more pro-Israel position, first declaring neutrality but
not opposition to Israeli statehood in 1946 and later strongly
supporting the new State.
He presided over the transfer of the movement’s headquarters
from Cincinnati to New York, and thus its integration
into Jewish organizational life in the United States. He
pushed for a shift in the balance of power from the South and
Midwest to the East, and its ideological change from classi-
cal Reform to a new rapprochement with tradition. He was
elected president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism
in July 1972. Eisendrath was particularly active in interfaith
activities and in social action, speaking out frequently during
the 1960s for civil rights and later against the Vietnam War.
With the big presence of Reform Judaism in the South, both
moves took courage and spurred opposition. In protest, New
York’s Temple Emanu-El seceded from the Union for a time.
Despite the opposition of two major congregations, New York’s
Emanu-El and Washington Hebrew Congregation, he established
the Kivie Kaplan Religious Action Center in Washington
to represent Reform Judaism in Congress and the White
House, fortifying the connection between Liberal Judaism
and American Liberalism. He also established the House of
Living Judaism, headquarters of the Union. As a young rabbi,
he was one of the founders of the Canadian Conference of
Christians and Jews. Eisendrath was the author of Spinoza
(1932), Never Failing Stream (1939), and Can Faith Survive?
The Thoughts and Afterthoughts of an American Rabbi (1964),
both the latter collections of essays on contemporary religious
issues. He died at the biennial convention of the UAHC, on the
eve of retirement.
Bibliography: Current Biography (1950), 134f.; M.Meyer,
Response to Modernity: A History of Reform Movement in Judaism
(1988); New York Times, November 10, 1973. Add. Bibliography:
K.M. Olitzky, L.J. Sussman, and M.H. Stern (eds.), Reform Judaism in
America: A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook (1993).
[Jack Reimer / Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)]
°EISENHOWER, DWIGHT DAVID (1890–1969), U.S. soldier,
supreme commander of the Allies’ European Theater of
Operations during World War II, and 34th president of the
United States. During World War II, he commanded the U.S.
troops in the United Kingdom, and then the Allied forces
landing in North Africa. There he pressured the French authorities
to annul the anti-Jewish laws of the Vichy regime.
As supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces,
Eisenhower led the Normandy invasion in 1944. After the German
surrender one of his first acts was to void all Nazi racial
and antisemitic legislation.
Eisenhower’s armies liberated tens of thousands of Jews
in concentration camps. Upon the discovery of the remnant
who refused to return to their native lands, and after pressure
from President Harry Truman, he created the unprecedented
position of adviser to the commanding general on Jewish affairs
to speed the handling of the Jewish survivors. Chaplain
Judah Naidich first filled the post and was succeeded by
a series of civilians beginning with Judge Simon H. *Rifkind.
Separate *displaced persons camps were created for Jews to
improve their physical, cultural, and spiritual conditions.
Eisenhower also ordered the admission into these camps of
tens of thousands of Jews fleeing from Poland and Eastern Europe
after the war (see *Beriḥah). In October 1945 Eisenhower
received David Ben-Gurion and acceded to his request for
planes to bring Hebrew teachers and agricultural instructors
266 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6