Maurice H. Harris

Maurice Henry Harris (November 9, 1859 – June 23, 1930) served as rabbi of Temple Israel of Harlem for almost fifty years.

Life

Harris was born on November 9, 1859, in London, England, the son of Rabbi Henry Lionell Harris and Rachel Lewis. His brother Isidore Harris was the scholarly minister of the Berkeley Street Synagogue in London.

Harris immigrated to America when he was nineteen. He studied in the Emanu-El Theological Seminary in New York City, New York, and was ordained a rabbi by Rabbi Gustav Gottheil in 1884. He also studied in Columbia University, receiving an A.B. from there in 1887, an A.M. in 1888, and a Ph.D. in 1889. In 1882, while studying, he became a Hebrew teacher for a small Orthodox Congregation Hand in Hand of Harlem that met in a room above a store in Harlem. The congregation picked him as their rabbi in 1887. A year later, the congregation, then known as Temple Israel of Harlem, moved to a new location and began using the Jastrow prayer book. By 1907, the congregation was considered one of the leading Reform congregations in New York City, moved to a different location, and became known as Temple Israel. Harris remained the congregation's rabbi for almost fifty years, serving as rabbi until his death.

By 1904, Harris wrote the three-volume The People of the Book: A History and Selected Addresses, two Chautauqua syllabi of Jewish history and literature, and contributions to the Jewish Quarterly Review and the North American Review. He also wrote History of the Medieval Jews in 1924, Modern Jewish History in 1910, 1924, and 1928, Modern Jewish History from the Renaissance to the World War in 1922, The Story of the Jew in 1919, The Story of the Jew in America in 1921, and A Thousand Years of Jewish History in 1927.