Magnes, Judah Leon

(born July 5, 1877, San Francisco, Calif., U.S.—died Oct. 27, 1948, New York, N.Y.) U.S.-born Israeli educator and religious leader. Ordained as a rabbi in 1900, he earned a doctorate at the University of Heidelberg in 1902. Serving as rabbi for three congregations in New York, he moved from Reform to Orthodox Judaism and became a Zionist. He drifted away from Zionism during World War I, preferring relief efforts for Jews in Palestine over political activism. After the war he became the principal founder and first president (1935–48) of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, working to advance Arab-Jewish reconciliation and advocating a binational Arab-Jewish state.

Magnes, Judah Leon (1877–1948) rabbi, educator; born in San Francisco. Educated at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, he became a Reform rabbi and an ardent Zionist. From 1906 to 1910 he was rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in New York, after which he tried to create a Jewish community structure in New York, known as a Kehilla (1910–22), with the goal of coordinating Jewish religious cultural and other activities. In 1923 he moved to Jerusalem and became the first chancellor of the Hebrew University (1925–35). He supported the idea of an Arab-Jewish state, often criticized Zionist policies, and opposed the 1947 partition of Palestine.