Wolfe Kelman (November 27, 1923 – June 26, 1990) was an Austrian-born American rabbi and leader in the Conservative Judaism in the United States who never led a congregation, serving for decades as a mentor to hundreds of rabbis in his role as the executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, where he also prepared the initial steps for the rabbinic ordination of women in the Conservative movement.
Eschewing a congregation and a pulpit, and at the prompting of Dr. Louis Finkelstein and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, he accepted a post at the Rabbinical Assembly in 1951.
There he helped professionalize the Conservative rabbinate, adding educational retreats and ensuring that rabbis received compensation and benefits commensurate with their role.
[1] He fought against increasing intermarriage, receiving publicity for his outspoken criticism on religious grounds of the popular television show, Bridget Loves Bernie, which showcased a happily married Jewish man and Catholic woman.
[1] A resident of Manhattan with an apartment on West End Avenue, Kelman died of melanoma at age 66 at the New York University Medical Center on June 26, 1990.