An Inventory to the Morris S. Lazaron Papers. 1851-1979. (bulk 1930-1950).

Manuscript Collection No. 71

Biographical Sketch

Morris Samuel Lazaron was born in Savannah, Georgia, on April 16, 1888 to Samuel L. and Alice (deCastro) Lazaron. He spent his childhood in Savannah, attending public schools and the Savannah Preparatory School.

Lazaron went north to Cincinnati, Ohio, to attend the Union College and the University of Cincinnati. In 1909 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University and, in 1911, received a Master of Arts degree. He was ordained a rabbi by Hebrew Union College in 1914.

Soon after his ordination Lazaron accepted a call to become rabbi at the Congregation Leshem Shomayim in Wheeling, West Virginia. He remained there until the next year, 1915, when he moved to Baltimore, Maryland to accept the pulpit at the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation.

While in Wheeling, Lazaron met and married Pauline Horkheimer. They had three children: Morris, Jr., Harold Victor, and Clementine. Pauline died in 1933 and, in 1945, Lazaron married Hilda Rothschild Rosenblatt.

During World War I Lazaron served as a chaplain in the U.S. Army Officers' Reserve Corps. In 1918 he obtained the rank of major and remained in the Officers' Reserve Corps until 1953. In 1921 Lazaron was one of four officiating chaplains, representing the Jews of America, at the burial of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. Also, in 1925 Lazaron was one of twenty founders of the Military Chaplains Association, an interfaith chaplains association.

While in Baltimore, in addition to his rabbinical duties, Lazaron became involved in and emerged as one of the leaders of a national effort to improve Jewish-Christian relations as well as becoming one of the most prominent spokesmen for the non-Zionist movement.

In 1933 and 1935, Lazaron, at the invitation of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, toured the United States with a Catholic priest and a Protestant minister, addressing meetings and conducting seminars in an effort to encourage inter-faith dialogue and support. In 1941, again at the invitation of the NCCJ, Lazaron toured England and Ireland with Dr. Everett R. Clinchy, president of the Conference, and Father Vincent Donovan in order to further study inter-faith relations. While in England, Lazaron gave a blessing in Hebrew to then prime minister, Winston Churchill.

Lazaron's efforts in the non-Zionist movement brought him into conflict with many pro-Zionist leaders, such as Stephen S. Wise, and led to his assisting in the founding of the American Council for Judaism, an organization dedicated to supporting the efforts and goals on the non-Zionist movement. But Lazaron's effort in support of non-Zionism also brought him into conflict with his congregation in Baltimore. Following his resignation as rabbi in 1946 after 31 years of service and his subsequent election as Rabbi Emeritus, Lazaron was asked by the Board of Trustees not to speak on Zionism in his High Holiday sermons to the congregation. Lazaron refused to agree to this and resigned as Emeritus in 1949. In 1957 Lazaron and the congregation settled their differences and Lazaron returned many times thereafter to speak to the congregation.

Lazaron was a member of numerous community organizations and civic groups including the American Merchant Marine Library Association, the Masons, The Order of the Scottish Rite, 33ø, and the League of Nations Association, Maryland branch. In 1934 Lazaron was awarded the Gottheil Medal by Zeta Beta Tau for the greatest contribution to the welfare of American Jewry in 1933. In 1936 he was awarded an honorary Litt. D. degree from Rutgers University and in 1963 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Lazaron authored many books, including: Common Ground: A Plea for Intelligent Americanism (1938); Seed of Abraham: Ten Jews of the Ages (1930); and Olive Trees in Storm (1955). Lazaron was the author of many articles, poems, and numerous other writings.

After his retirement Lazaron lived in New York and Florida, where he taught for a time at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida and North Carolina. He took up painting and his works were displayed in one-man shows in Paris, London, New York, and Boston.

Morris S. Lazaron died on June 5, 1979 in London, England at the age of 91.

Scope and Content Note

The Morris S. Lazaron papers are in many ways a representative look at the life of an American Reform rabbi in the first half of the 20th century. This extensive collection reflects the religious, professional, communal, and scholarly life of a man who was the senior rabbi of a large metropolitan congregation and was active in many of the issues and events facing American Jewry in the pre and post-World War II era.

The strength of the Morris Lazaron collection is in Series A. Correspondence, which contains files pertaining to many persons, issues, and organizations. Of note among these are files pertaining to the formation of the American Council for Judaism, an anti-Zionist organization founded primarily by American Reform rabbis in the aftermath of the Central Conference of American Rabbis' formal acceptance of the Zionist cause in the 1930s. Lazaron was one of ACJ's founders and, for a while, one of its most avid supporters. These files give an excellent contemporary look at the tensions and issues that encircled the formation and development of this controversial organization - including the ultimate disillusionment and abandonment of the ACJ by many of its early supporters and founders - including Morris Lazaron.

Also of interest are the files pertaining to the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Lazaron was actively involved in interfaith work. In the 1930s, under the auspices of the NCCJ, he toured the United States with a Catholic priest and a Protestant minister in an effort to encourage interfaith dialogue and support.

The Morris Lazaron papers are a rich source not only on the life and work of an American Reform rabbi, but also on the life, times and issues facing America and American Jewry during a turbulent and significant era in mid-20th century American history.

Arrangement Note

Search Terms

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

Terms of Access and Use

The Morris S. Lazaron Papers are open to all users. The original manuscript collection is available in the Barrows-Loebelson Reading Room of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives.

Property and Literary Rights

Morris S. Lazaron and the Lazaron Estate, by the act of donating the Morris S. Lazaron Papers to the American Jewish Archives, assigned all property rights to the American Jewish Archives. Literary rights are retained by the Morris S. Lazaron heirs. Literary rights may also be retained by specific creators of materials.

Questions concerning rights should be addressed to the Executive Director of the American Jewish Archives. For more information see the American Jewish Archives
copyright information webpage.

Preferred Citation

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

[Description], [Date], Box #, Folder #. MS-71. Morris S. Lazaron Papers. American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Provenance

The Morris S. Lazaron Papers were received from Morris S. Lazaron and the Lazaron Estate, Baltimore, Maryland in 1968 and 1979.

Accruals and Additions

No further accruals are expected to this collection.

Processing Information

Processed by Kevin Proffitt,

Box and Folder Listing