Kieval, Hayyim
KIEVAL, HAYYIM
KIEVAL, HAYYIM (Herman ) (1920–1991), Conservative rabbi and scholar of Jewish liturgy. Kieval was born and raised in Baltimore where he studied with Dr. Louis *Kaplan at Baltimore Hebrew College and with Prof. William F. *Albright at Johns Hopkins. He received an M.H.L. and was ordained as a rabbi by the *Jewish Theological Seminary (jts) in 1942.
Kieval served as a congregational rabbi for over 40 years, including 31 years at Temple Israel in Albany, New York. The congregation created its own day school as well as a Hebrew-speaking day camp called Camp Givah. It also produced scholars of international renown such as Robert Alter and Robert Chazin as well as numerous rabbis. He was heavily involved in ecumenical work, teaching at Notre Dame University, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Siena College, where he founded and directed the Institute for Jewish-Christian Studies.
Kieval's main academic interest was Jewish liturgy. From 1958 to 1980 he served as visiting associate professor of liturgy in the Cantorial School of the Jewish Theological Seminary. He also served as committee member or advisor for Conservative prayer books (1961–85) and published a series of scholarly articles about Jewish liturgy. His magnum opus is The High Holy Days: A Commentary on the Prayerbook of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Book One on Rosh Hashanah was published in 1959. It was republished together with Book Two: Kol Nidre Night in 2004. The text is aimed at laypeople while the footnotes are intended for rabbis and scholars. It is considered by many to be the best English-language commentary on the High Holiday Mahzor.
[David Golinkin (2nd ed.)]