User:Gjacobson/Rabbi Rafael G. Grossman

Rabbi Rafael G. Grossman is a noted American orthodox rabbi who is noted for his passionate sermons and lectures.

A descendant of fifty-two generations of rabbis, he was born in the Bronx, New York City, where his parents lived after emigrating from Poland in the 1920s. Considered by the rabbis in his community an iluy, a budding genius, his parents enrolled him in the 1st grade of a yeshiva at the age of four.

He is the Senior Rabbi Emeritus of Baron Hirsch Congregation in Memphis, Tennessee, a flagship of American orthodox Judaism, where he served for more than a quarter of a century. Rabbi Grossman founded Camp Darom, the first, and still the only, sleep away camp under orthodox auspices in the entire South. He oversaw the construction of a new synagogue building, and established numerous other programs that have benefited members of his congregation, the City of Memphis, and the State of Israel. These includee the Southern Traditional Singles, with its national weekend celebration, and an adult education program which offered more than twenty classes per week, most taught by the Rabbi and highlighted with various lectures featuring foremost lecturers and scholars in world Jewry.

Rabbi Grossman has served in numerous organizational capacities. He is the past president of the Beth Din of America and the Rabbinical Council of America, which represents more than 1,000 orthodox rabbis and which is America's largest such group. He is a former special consultant for the Anti-Defamation League and has written widely about antisemitism in America and the world. He is the past Chairman of the Board of the Religious Zionists of America, and the past Chairman of the Rabbinic Cabinet Board of Directors of the Development Corporation for Israel - State of Israel Bonds. He is the former rabbi of the West Side Institutional Synagogue in New York City. Recently, he has served as rabbi of the Synagogue on the Palisades in Fort Lee, New Jersey. He is the Chairman of the Religious Council International and the President of the Center for Life.

Having spent most of his rabbinic career in the South, he developed close relationships with the national leaders of fundamentalist Christianity.

He has devoted a good portion of his rabbinate to reaching out to those Jews who are not knowledgeable about their heritage. He is the author of "Binah: The Modern Quest for Torah Understanding".