author

Bernard Drachman

1861–1945

A pioneering American Orthodox rabbi, teacher, and translator, he helped shape Jewish religious life in the United States at a time of major change. His career bridged old-world tradition and modern American culture, and his memoir later offered a vivid firsthand portrait of that world.

1 Audiobook

From the Heart of Israel: Jewish Tales and Types

From the Heart of Israel: Jewish Tales and Types

by Bernard Drachman

About the author

Born in New York in 1861 and raised in Jersey City, Bernard Drachman became one of the first prominent English-speaking Orthodox rabbis in the United States. He studied at Columbia College and later in Breslau and Heidelberg. Although he was originally sent to Europe by Reform patrons, his experiences there drew him strongly toward Orthodoxy, which became the center of his life and work.

He served congregations in Newark and New York, including Zichron Ephraim and Oheb Zedek, and is remembered as the first ordained Orthodox rabbi in the United States to preach in English. He also taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary in its early years and later at Yeshiva College, showing how widely his influence reached across American Jewish education.

Drachman was active far beyond the pulpit. He served as president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations from 1908 to 1920, helped found communal organizations, and translated Samson Raphael Hirsch's Nineteen Letters into English. His autobiography, Unfailing Light, published after his death in 1945, remains a valuable window into American Jewish life in his era.