Norman Salit (1896-1960) Papers

U.S. lawyer, rabbi, and communal leader Norman Salit was born on June 8, 1896 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Michael and Rachel Ethel (Altschul) Salit. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from City College in 1916, his law degree from New York University in 1919, rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1920, and a Master of Arts from Columbia University in 1922. He later received a Master of Hebrew Letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1949, an honorary Doctor of Letters in 1956, also from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Humane Letters from Philathea College in Canada in 1957. Salit served as the rabbi at Temple Adath Israel in the Bronx from 1919-1924 and at the same time was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1920. He was admitted to the bars of the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Treasury Department in 1938. He served as the rabbi of Congregation Shaaray Tefila in Far Rockaway, Queens, from 1924-1929, when he decided to focus more closely on his legal career. He headed the Queens County Bar Association Committee on Legislation and Law Reform from 1933-1937, and was involved with numerous other legal, religious, and aid organizations. During World War II he was the executive director of the Wartime Emergency Commission for Conservative Judaism, which aided congregations whose rabbis had entered military service. Salit was an active member of many Jewish and Zionist organizations, including serving as the president of the Synagogue Council of America from 1953-1955, the board of overseers of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, a past president of the Long Island Council of the American Jewish Congress, the executive council of the New York Board of Rabbis from 1951-1958, counsel for the Rabbinical Assembly of America, and was on the executive committee of the Zionist Organization of America, among many others.

Salit married Ruth Levy on July 1, 1928. Together, they had two daughters, Naomi and Miriam. Norman Salit died on July 21, 1960 in New York City.