Philip S. Bernstein Papers
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Philip S. Bernstein papers This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on September 26, 2021. English Describing Archives: A Content Standard Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester Rush Rhees Library Second Floor, Room 225 Rochester, NY 14627-0055 [email protected] URL: https://www.library.rochester.edu/spaces/rbscp Philip S. Bernstein papers Table of Contents Summary Information .................................................................................................................................... 3 Biographical/Historical note .......................................................................................................................... 3 Scope and Contents note ............................................................................................................................. 13 Arrangement note ......................................................................................................................................... 18 Administrative Information .......................................................................................................................... 19 Controlled Access Headings ........................................................................................................................ 19 Collection Inventory ..................................................................................................................................... 20 Temple B'rith Kodesh ............................................................................................................................... 20 Sermons ...................................................................................................................................................... 67 Funeral Memorial Services ..................................................................................................................... 130 CANRA ................................................................................................................................................... 137 ADVISOR ON JEWISH AFFAIRS ....................................................................................................... 144 CCAR ....................................................................................................................................................... 168 AZCPA/AIPAC ....................................................................................................................................... 172 Local ........................................................................................................................................................ 218 Addresses ................................................................................................................................................. 231 Publications .............................................................................................................................................. 267 Correspondence ........................................................................................................................................ 293 Personal Miscellanea ............................................................................................................................... 326 Subject Files ............................................................................................................................................ 338 Oversized Materials ................................................................................................................................. 388 - Page 2 - Philip S. Bernstein papers Summary Information Repository: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester Creator: Bernstein, Philip S. (Philip Sydney), 1901- Title: Philip S. Bernstein Papers ID: D.269 Date [inclusive]: circa 1901-1985 Physical Description: 124 linear feet Language of the English Material: Preferred Citation (Name of item, if applicable), Philip S. Bernstein Papers, [DATE SPAN]. Rare Books Special Collections & Preservation Department, University of Rochester. ^ Return to Table of Contents Biographical/Historical note The following essay was written by Walter F. Nickeson and Laura Graham (1995–2000), and offers biographical information about Rabbi Bernstein and his life's work. Rabbi Philip Bernstein needs no introduction to a Rochester audience. He has been here too long.[1] Philip S. Bernstein was the son of Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe who came to the United States in the late nineteenth century. His mother, Sara Steinberg, came from Seraye in Lithuania. At the age of ten her family sent her alone to America. She came to live with her brother Sam in Rochester, New York, and never saw her immediate family again.[2] Bernstein's father, Abraham, born in 1875 in Kalvary, Lithuania, immigrated with his family to New York City. There he learned the tailoring trade. Eventually he arrived in Rochester where he met and married Sara Steinberg. Philip S. Bernstein, the first of their three sons, was born there on June 29, 1901. In 1903, the Bernstein family moved back to New York City for about eight years, then returned to Rochester to stay. For the next fifty years, Philip Bernstein lived "within the area of one square mile" in the city.[3] - Page 3- Philip S. Bernstein papers A precocious student, Bernstein was placed in advanced classes at East High School in Rochester. He left in 1917 without being graduated. Despite his youth and his family's lack of money, he was determined to go to college—even running away to his aunt in New York for a short time to make his point. In the fall of that year he was finally allowed to enter Syracuse University. His schooling there was interrupted by his father's illness, and in 1919, he returned to Rochester to run the family tailoring business for a short time. It was never very prosperous, and Bernstein decided to leave the world of business. As he saw it, his future lay either with the law or in the rabbinate. Bernstein had, from an early age, been active in the Jewish community. In this he was alone in his family: his brothers both pursued successful secular careers. (However, his cousin Milton Steinberg, son of his mother's sister, with whom he grew up, was also to become a well-known rabbi.) Bernstein's interest in Zionism found expression in 1914 when he was an usher at the 17th National Convention of the Federation of American Zionists in Rochester.[4] The following year, as a delegate to the Young Judean Zionist Convention in Boston, he met future Supreme Court Justice and active Zionist Louis D. Brandeis. Later, as a student at Syracuse University, he taught Sunday School at Temple Society of Concord, a Reform congregation. These kinds of activities seem to have convinced him to formalize his service to his community by becoming a rabbi. After being graduated from SU in 1921, Bernstein entered the Jewish Institute of Religion (JIR) in New York City. The Institute had been recently founded by the famous Reform rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and Bernstein, attracted by Wise's powerful personality and the Institute's pro-Zionist stance (in contrast to what he saw as the anti-Zionism of the Hebrew Union College), was a member of its first class, graduating in 1926. His master's thesis was on Jeremiah, after whom his first son was named. In later years he expressed regret that his education did not give him a deep background in the Hebrew language. In June 1925 he married Sophie Rubin, the niece of Syracuse rabbi Benjamin Friedman, with whom Bernstein had become friends while attending the University. Sophie Rubin does not have a large place in her husband's papers. She is revealed indirectly as a woman of strong character, willing to meet the traditional social obligations of a rabbi's wife, but also capable of substantive work of her own in the Temple in which her husband was rabbi. She aided him organizationally, especially in the activities of the Sisterhood of Temple B'rith Kodesh, which was sometimes as much an educational and political organization as it was religious and social. She accompanied her husband on most of his trips throughout their lives, and together they were indefatigable travelers. Shortly after their wedding they took the first of what would become a typical Bernstein working vacation. They spent the 1925 fall term at Cambridge University, England, where they met and became friends with Chaim Weizmann, the future first president of Israel. At the end of the term, they left England and visited Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Poland, Vienna, Venice, Rome, Naples, Egypt, and Palestine, where Bernstein completed his studies in the first classes at Hebrew University.[5] Forty years later they went on a trip around the world in the opposite direction, traveling to Los Angeles and thence to Hawaii, southeast Asia, India, Africa, Israel, and Greece. In many of these cities and countries, they inquired after the history and lives of Jewish communities: "Wherever we go, like Joseph, we seek our brethren. And we find them."[6] While in Palestine, an apparently chance meeting with some touring residents of Rochester led Bernstein to apply for the position of assistant rabbi at Temple B'rith Kodesh. In August 1926 he was hired and when Rabbi Horace J. Wolf died in February of the next year, Bernstein became the sole rabbi. He remained at the head of the temple for 46 years