Rubenovitz, Herman H.

RUBENOVITZ, HERMAN H. (1883–1966), U.S. rabbi and Zionist. Rubenovitz, born in Kovno, Lithuania, was taken to the United States in about 1890 and lived in Pittsburgh. In 1908, he graduated from the Jewish Theological Seminary and took his first pulpit in Louisville, Kentucky. There Rubenovitz initiated the idea of an association of Conservative synagogues, which eventually took the form of the *United Synagogue of America. In 1910 he became rabbi of Congregation Mishkan Tefila, Boston, which, over the years, he succeeded in making Conservative in outlook and in style of worship. Rubenovitz was among the rabbis who, with Mordecai *Kaplan, developed the Society of the Jewish Renascence in 1920, which later became the *Reconstructionist movement.

He also was among the founders of the Boston Rabbinical Association, serving as its president for 15 years. He was active in Jewish education in the Boston area and initiated the plan for a training school for Jewish teachers. Rubenovitz presided over the Zionist Council in Boston and was chairman of the New England Board of the Jewish National Fund for four years. His wife, MIGNON RUBENOVITZ, was an active leader in Hadassah Women's Organization, in the National Council of Jewish Women, and in the National Women's League of the United Synagogue of America. They published memoirs and letters in The Waking Heart (1967), and Mignon Rubenovitz published other works under her own name.