Philip Goodman (1911-) Papers

Philip Goodman was a rabbi and an author. He was born in New York City on September 6, 1911, the son of Harry D. Goodman and Molly Epstein. Goodman married Hanna Caspy on August 14, 1932 with whom he had two children, Abraham and Judith. He attended the Teachers Institute at Yeshiva University and the College of the City of New York. Goodman was a Rabbi for the Yeshiva of Rabbi Kook.

Goodman was an author of The Habanoth Manual in 1938. In 1949, he wrote The Purim Anthology. Goodman was also published in the Lincoln’s Birthday Program Material for Jewish Groups in 1953. He was an editor to the Jewish Book Annual from 1944 to 1954 and was published in a series of bulletins on Jewish holidays from 1946 to 1953.

Philip Goodman became the director of the Jewish education and Jewish center division for the JWB in 1944 after serving on the staff and in the armed services division of the Jewish Welfare Board from 1942 to 1944. He was a rabbi and executive director of the Institutional Synagogue in New York City from 1934 to 1942.

Goodman became the executive secretary of the Jewish Book Council of America in 1944. In his annual report of the Jewish Book Council in 1947-1948, he expressed the need to develop Jewish libraries in communities across the United States.² Goodman was also executive secretary of the American Jewish Historical Society from 1948 to 1953 and served as a member on the AJHS Executive Council from 1952 to 1964.

Goodman was a member of several national Jewish organizations and rabbinic groups including the National Association of Jewish Center Workers, National Council for Jewish Education, Mizrachi, Young Israel, Congregation Mt. Sinai Anshe Emes, and the New York Board of Rabbis.