[1] After marrying Toby Bookholtz, an actress and scholar of Shakespeare, Lelyveld moved to Omaha, Nebraska in 1941, where he led Temple Israel.
As senior rabbi emeritus, he served as a lecturer in Jewish thought at John Carroll University.
[4] Rabbi Lelyveld was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and died at the Montefiore Home in Beachwood, Ohio, on April 15, 1996.
[4] During the Second World War Lelyveld was a pacifist and conscientious objector, though he did propose sending a Jewish relief force to Europe.
[6] Lelyveld voiced his support for the recognition of the State of Israel[7] and was the executive director for the Committee on Unity for Palestine.
His son Joseph Lelyveld was the executive editor of The New York Times, and won a Pulitzer Prize for journalism.