TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Biographical Sketch

Scope and Content Note

Arrangement Note

Conditions of Access and Use

Administrative Information

Search Terms

Box and Folder Listing

Series A. Correspondence, 1955-1994.

Series B. Writings, 1960-1995

Series C. Subject Files, 1947-1990

Finding Aid to the Judea B. Miller Papers. 1947-1995.

Manuscript Collection No. 686

Biographical Sketch

Judea B. Miller was born in New York City in 1930 to Polish immigrants. He did undergraduate work at New York University, graduating with a B.A. in three years and the first annual Bible Award in 1952. While raised as an Orthodox Jew, Miller turned to Reform Judaism in college as a more fitting expression of his personal religious tenets. In 1954, he earned a Bachelor of Hebrew Literature from the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City. He went on to receive his M.A., M.H.L. and ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio by 1957.

Miller’s first rabbinic assignment from 1957-1959 was as an Assistant Post Chaplain at the army post in Ft. Riley, Kansas. While at the post he specialized in marital and draft counseling. In 1959, Miller assumed a post at Temple Emanu-El, in Wichita, Kansas. Miller was not only a popular rabbi who increased his congregation in Kansas and built a new temple building; he was an also active supporter of black rights. Miller served on a Fair Housing Commission and was active in local politics.

Miller was next named the rabbi at Temple Tifereth Israel in Malden, Massachusetts in 1965. He was active in the local Jewish Community Council, interfaith community activities, and the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis. Miller was also a chaplain at the local Veterans Administration neuropsychiatric hospital. During this time, Miller served in the Delta Ministry in Mississippi and was active in the integration of the first Mississippi restaurant- a Woolworth’s counter in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Miller said that one of his reasons for going to Mississippi to aid the desegregation movement was the haunting sense of guilt over the Holocaust and the loss of his two half-brothers in a workers camp outside Maidenek, Poland.

From 1973 until his retirement, Miller was the senior rabbi at Temple B’rith Kodesh in Rochester, New York. He became active there with the local Jewish Federation, interfaith councils and the New York Board of Rabbis. His involvement in national Jewish organizations included the American Zionist Federation, the Board of Overseers for Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Rabbinic Cabinet of the United Jewish Appeal and the World Zionist Congress. Miller was also active in support of an orphanage in Israel.

Miller died in 1995. Miller married his wife Anita in 1952 in New York City. They had two children: Jonathan (also a rabbinic graduate of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion) and Rebecca Gottesman.

Scope and Content Note

The Judea B. Miller papers detail the career and political activities of Judea Miller, rabbi and social activist. Miller was a Reform rabbi who retained his ties with colleagues in the Orthodox and Conservative movements as well as interfaith councils that played an active role in the social and political issues of the times. Whether it was the housing crisis of the 1950s, civil rights and desegregation in the 1960s, Soviet refuseniks in the 1970s and 1980s, or Bosnian refugees in the 1990s, Miller was active in voicing his views and urging his congregants to take a stand.

Miller hoped to move to the Negev desert in Israel, following his graduation from New York University in 1952. While that was not possible, Miller and his wife Anita did go on a tour of Israel in 1961, sponsored by the Jewish Agency. He chronicled this trip in a series of letters found in the correspondence series. Miller was a strong Zionist as seen by his participation in the World Zionist Congress and in a series of articles written throughout the years on Israelis and Palestinians such as Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat.

In the mid-1970s, Miller’s aunt was robbed and brutally killed in her apartment in New York City. At this point, Miller began a lifelong crusade against the death penalty, following his aunt’s own beliefs. He formulated groups of rabbis with similar beliefs from the Central Conference of American Rabbis and also the local interfaith clergy councils. Miller wrote numerous articles and letters to the editors espousing his beliefs. He wrote hundreds of letters to politicians urging them to oppose the death penalty and fought bitterly against its reinstatement in New York in 1989. Letters on this subject are found in nearly every folder of the correspondence series and also in the subject files. Of particular interest is a series of letters from physicians who wrote to Miller responding to his inquiry about the role of physicians in lethal injection cases.

Also scattered throughout the correspondence series are letters to politicians and colleagues such as David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center concerning important social issues including: civil rights, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, Soviet Jewry, sanctuary congregations and mental health care. The Temple B’rith Kodesh folders in the Subject Files contain programs, scripts and memorabilia from events that often relate to the social conscience of Rabbi Miller. His sermons, found in the writings series, also parallel the social issues of the times. Of some interest is material relating to Miller’s observation of a grape worker’s strike in Delano, California in 1968.

Portions of the correspondence in this collection were originally located in AJA Box No. 1024. The span dates of the collection are 1947-1995.

Arrangement Note

The papers are organized into three series: I. Correspondence, II. Writings, and III. Subject/Research files.

Conditions of Access and Use

Terms of Access

The collection is open for use; no restrictions apply.

Terms of Reproduction and Use

Copyright restrictions may apply. Authorization to publish, quote, or reproduce, with exceptions for fair use, may be obtained through the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio. Please address queries to the Executive Director of the American Jewish Archives. For more information, see the American Jewish Archives copyright information webpage.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Footnotes and bibliographic references should refer to the Judea B. Miller Papers and the American Jewish Archives. A suggestion for at least the first citation is as follows:

[Description], [Date], Box #, Folder #. MS-676. Judea B. Miller Papers. American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Provenance

The Judea B. Miller papers were donated to the American Jewish Archives by Judea Miller, Rochester, N.Y., in several segments between 1962 and 1993; and by Temple B'rith Kodesh, Rochester, N.Y., in 1998.

Processing Information

Processed by Melinda McMartin, August 2002.

Box and Folder Listing

Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the AJA's online catalog.

Institutions

Subjects

Occupations