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Jules Harlow

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Julius Edwin Harlow (June 28, 1931 – February 12, 2024) was an American Conservative rabbi and liturgist.

Birth

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Harlow was born in Sioux City, Iowa, to Henry and Lena Harlow (née Lipman) in 1931.[1]

Career

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In 1952, he earned a B.A. at Morningside University (then Morningside College) in Sioux City, and from there went to New York City to study at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he received his semikhah, and thus was ordained as a rabbi, in 1959.[1] He then became a staff member of the Rabbinical Assembly (RA), the international organization of rabbis in Conservative Judaism.[2]

Harlow soon began work as a liturgist on the RA's prayerbook committee, working with Rabbi Gershon Hadas on new siddurim (Jewish prayerbooks) for use in Conservative congregations. Under Hadas's editorship, they printed the Weekday Prayer Book in 1961. He took a greater role by editing and translating the movement's mahzor (prayerbook for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) which was published in 1972.[3] He soon became the chief liturgist for the Conservative movement,[4] and was the editor of Siddur Sim Shalom in 1985. Siddur Sim Shalom became the prototype for a family of later Conservative siddurim, including Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Yom Tov, Siddur Sim Shalom for Weekdays and Or Hadash: A Commentary on Siddur Sim Shalom. His other publishing activities within Conservative Judaism included being literary editor on the Etz Hayim: A Torah Commentary.[5]

Harlow, together with his wife Navah, worked with The Masorti Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal since 2005 for the cause of the Bnei Anusim (descendants of crypto-Jews) in and of the Iberian Peninsula.[6]

Personal life and death

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Harlow and his wife had two children.[1] His son, David, is a lawyer[7] and his daughter, Ilana, is a folklorist.[8]

Harlow died from pneumonia on February 12, 2024, at the age of 92.[1][9]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Goldman, Ari L. (February 19, 2024). "Rabbi Jules Harlow, 92, Dies; Helped Redefine Conservative Jewish Prayer". The New York Times. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
  2. ^ The Rabbinical Assembly Archived November 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur:Rabbinical Assembly, a prayer book for the Days of Awe 1978
  4. ^ Jewish Virtual Library, entry on The Rabbinical Assembly drawn from Encyclopaedia Judaica. Accessed February 21, 2024.
  5. ^ Etz Hayim: A Torah Commentary, Ed. David Lieber, Jules Harlow, Chaim Potok and Harold Kushner, The Jewish Publication Society, NY, 2001.
  6. ^ Rabbi Jules and Navah Harlow report on their recent trip to Lisbon & Madrid Archived July 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "Home". healthblawg.com.
  8. ^ "New York Folklore Society Newsletter". www.nyfolklore.org. Archived from the original on October 3, 2000.
  9. ^ Rabbi Jules Harlow, editor of the prayer book used in Conservative synagogues for a quarter century, dies at 92, jta.org. Accessed February 21, 2024.
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