[2] At a ceremony where Hayim Nahman Bialik received an honorary Doctorate of Hebrew Letters by the Seminary, Burnstein was ordained in June 1926—in the same class as Rabbis Joel S. Geffen, Israel M. Goldman, Elhanan H. Golomb, Jacob Granowitz, Louis Greenberg, Lewis B. Grossman, Moses Hadas, Michael Higger, Jonas Kaminkowski, Herbert Parzen and Benjamin Unger.
"[5] Only two years into his tenure at Temple Beth El, Burnstein witnessed and offered some words upon the congregation's dedication of its new building in 1930 at a ceremony attended both by Harrisburg's mayor George A. Hoverter and Philadelphia's Rabbi Max D.
Burnstein, who, in this capacity, worked with representatives of the three major denominations of American Judaism at the time, regarded Adler as having "done more toward the consummation of this project than any other man.
"[11] In this capacity, Burnstein was tasked with handling all of the requests that Adler had forwarded from cantors and rabbis asking the Seminary to bring them to the United States from Europe.
[15] An activist, Burnstein was a signatory to "A proclamation on the moral rights of the stateless and Palestinian Jews," published in 1941 calling for support for the Jewish plight in Palestine.
"[17] Although the content of the speech appears not to be recorded, it is notable that this talk was delivered the first Friday night (Shabbat evening) after the Attack on Pearl Harbor.