[4] His paternal grandparents, Abraham (1851-1915) and Sarah Zeldin (1860-1923), and maternal grandfather, Meyer Shlyapochnik (1859-1936), were also immigrants to New York City.

[6] He was ordained at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati,[7] which awarded him its Simon Lazarus Prize for attaining highest academic standing in his graduating class.

[10] In 1953 he became director of the Southern California region of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and Dean of the Los Angeles College of Jewish Studies.

[11] In 1958, he assumed the pulpit at Temple Emanuel (Beverly Hills, California) upon the sudden death of Rabbi Bernard Harrison.

The new congregation was intended to have a membership limited in size to maintain intimacy between the rabbi and the member families, and it met at St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Westwood.