Braude, William G. (William Gordon), 1907-1988

Rabbi and author.

From the description of William G. Braude correspondence, 1981-1984. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 759950912

Rabbi and scholar. Born in Telz, Lithuania, Braude arrived in the United States in 1920 and was ordained in 1931 by Hebrew Union College. Upon graduation and until his retirement he served as rabbi of a Reform congregation, Temple Beth El, in Providence, RI. Rabbi Braude was a central figure in the Reform movement, supporting traditional Jewish practices within the movement and promoting the concept of Hebrew Day schools. He published widely, especially critical editions and translations of the Midrashic literature.

From the description of William G. Braude papers, ca. 1930-1988. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 462019498

William Braude was born on 25 April 1907 in Telsiai, Lithuania to Rabbi Isaac and Rachel (Halperin) Braude. They immigrated to New York City in 1907 where Braude attended yeshiva. A few months later the family moved again and Braude was educated in the public schools in Denver, Colorado and Dayton, Ohio.

Braude was ordained at Hebrew Union College in 1931. He accepted a pulpit at Temple Beth El, in Providence, Rhode Island, where he was to remain until his retirement in 1974. He then became Rabbi Emeritus. Although Braude remained a Reform rabbi he challenged his congregation to increase their ties with their Conservative and Orthodox counterparts and Jewish tradition. On Yom Kippur services in 1965, Braude pulled out a yarmulke and announced he would wear it as part of his commitment to the Jewish people. He had a strong commitment to Jewish education and the study of Hebrew and Torah- and he would insist upon the time for his study over temple committee meetings. William Braude built the Beth El library to over 25,000 volumes and it has been renamed in his honor. He also developed the Hebrew school.

Braude wrote extensively on the Torah and commentaries. He received an M.A. from Brown University in 1934 and a Ph.D. in 1937. His dissertation was entitled Jewish Proselyting in the First Five Centuries of the Common Era . He served on the Brown faculty from 1937-1942 and was a guest lecturer at Leo Baeck College, Hebrew University and Yale University. Among Braude's major works was the 2 volume The Midrash on the Psalms, a Translation from the Hebrew and Aramaic (1959) and Pesikta Rabbati: Discourses for Feasts, Fasts and Special Sabbaths translated from the Hebrew (1968) published for the Yale University Judaica series. But Braude also wrote on issues that would draw the general public into Torah study and Jewish traditions. Typical of such publications are articles like "Detective Cohen Turns to Midrash" (1945) or the sermon "What I Learned in Alabama about Yarmulkes" (1965).

Braude was keenly interested in issues of social justice. While a challenger of the ardent Zionists who viewed Israel as the panacea to the Jewish suffering, he also questioned the anti-Zionists. Braude ran in the early 1930s as a reform candidate for the school board. He championed black rights long before the sixties, and marched in Selma, Alabama with Martin Luther King. Yet, he was not a proponent of all civil rights legislation and many of his congregants disagreed with his conservative political stances.

William Braude died on 25 February 1988 following a long illness. He married Pearl Finkelstein on 19 June 1938 and had three children: Joel Isaac, Benjamin Meir and Daniel.

From the guide to the William G. Braude Papers., 1930-1987., (The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives)