GLAZER, SIMON

GLAZER, SIMON (1878–1938), U.S. Orthodox rabbi and author. Glazer, who was born in Ezwillig, Lithuania, was ordained in 1896 by Rabbi Alexander Mose Lapidus and Rabbi Isaac Rabinowitz. He fled from service in the Russian army; unable to receive permission to stay in Koenigsberg, he left for Palestine, where he was unable to earn a living and therefore immigrated to the U.S. in 1897 where he served as a cantor in Buffalo while mastering English and subsequently served as rabbi in several cities in the Midwest before becoming chief rabbi of the United Synagogues of Montreal and Quebec (1907–18). He worked to improve Jewish education, helped establish a Federation of Jewish charities and helped found the YMHA. He believed in using whatever means possible to interest Jewish children in Jewish education. He also approved of Sunday school education believing that it was better than the lack of all Jewish education. He moved to New York in 1923 and was rabbi of Beth Hamidrash Hagadol (1923–27) in Harlem; Temple Beth-El, Brooklyn (1927–30); and the Maimonides Synagogue (1930–38). A profilic writer and journalist, Glazer was a founder (1907) and the first editor of the Yiddish daily, the Canadian Jewish Eagle (Kanader Adler) and was active in rabbinic and Zionist organizations. His published works include: Jews of Iowa (1904); Guide of Judaism (1917); The Palestine Resolution (1922); History of Israel (6 vols., 1930), a reworking of Graetz's History of the Jews; and Visions of Isaiah (1937), a collection of sermons. He also wrote on Techina Book: Containing Prayers and Religious Duties for the Daughters of Israel (1930).

His son, B. BENEDICT GLAZER (1902–1952), was a prominent Reform rabbi in the U.S. He was rabbi of Temple Beth El in Detroit, Michigan, from 1942 until his death.

add. bibliography:

M.D. Sherman, Orthodox Judaism in America: A Bibliographical Dictionary and Sourcebook (1996).