Turning the Pages: Conversations through Time with Rabbi Isador Signer (Jewish Arguments)

In 1924, Rabbi Isidor Signer was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City. He had been born in Romania and raised in Montreal. He would go on to lead congregations in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Somerville, Massachusetts; and Manhattan Beach, New York, until his death at age 53.

A century later, his granddaughter has selected and annotated two dozen of Rabbi Signer's sermons, delivered between the years 1923 and 1949. She has also solicited a contemporary response to each sermon, reflecting on Rabbi Signer's words from the perspective of a century's hindsight. Respondents include rabbis, professors, writers, and other deeply engaged Jews.

Rabbi Signer's career and sermons span the period from the aftermath of the first World War (one from 1924 eulogizes President Woodrow Wilson) to the aftermath of the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel. Taken together, the sermons and responses in this volume provide an illuminating window on American Judaism in both the early 20th and early 21st centuries.

“Most collections of sermons simply present the sermons to be read as they were written and delivered. The concept behind Turning the Pages: Conversations through Time with Rabbi Isador Signer is both original and classic. Original, in that each of Rabbi Signer’s sermons has a modern respondent who not only reviews the sermon, but also sometimes argues with it. Classic, in that it feels somewhat like a page of Talmud, wherein scholars of different centuries and locales converse with their colleagues as if they were in the same room in the academy. I found some of the sermons inspired and inspiring, while others did not pass the test of time for me. Rabbi Signer was a product of his time, preaching to congregants in the 1920’s and 30’s. His attempts to bring current events and ideas to bear on Jewish topics show his determination to make Judaism relevant to his flock. A century later, we might find different illustrations and lessons to speak to our version of modernity as applied to Torah values, but we have great respect for Rabbi Signer’s authenticity and integrity as he labored in the vineyards of the Almighty.”
—Rabbi Ellen W. Dreyfus, Rabbi Emerita of Shir Tikva in Homewood IL, founder of the Women’s Rabbinic Network

“Sermons or derashot are a wonderful window into the past, from Leviticus Rabbah in fifth century Eretz Yisrael to Yehoshua Ibn Shuib in 14th century Spain to Rabbi Isador Signer in 20th century America. Rabbi Signer was a very erudite rabbi, fully at home in the Bible, the Talmud, the poetry of Ibn Gabirol, and the contemporary thought of Bertrand Russell. Through his sermons on a wide range of topics, we learn what bothered him and his congregants as Jewish Americans ca. 1925-1950.
“Through this volume’s fascinating dialogue with Jews of today, especially with his own descendants, we see that ‘there is nothing new under the sun.’ Our attitudes might have changed, but the challenges of how to be a Jew in the modern world are similar.”
—Rabbi Dr. David Golinkin, President, The Schechter Institutes, Jerusalem

Rabbi Isador Signer (1900-1953) was born in Romania, raised in Montreal, and ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, after which he served pulpits in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Sommerville, Massachusetts; and Manhattan Beach, New York.

Aliza Arzt considers herself to be a Hebraist and Bible investigator by avocation, having studied both these subjects as well as linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania and the Jewish Theological Seminary. She is a granddaughter of Rabbi Isador Signer.