Zucker, Hans Joseph |
Zucker, John Joseph (1909–1981)

I. Family Background Education and Youth in Germany
Hans Josef Zucker was born May 14, 1909. He was the second son of Bruno and Erna Zucker (née Bernhardt) of Lossen, in Silesia, Germany, an area, which belongs to Poland today and is called Wroclaw.
He had an older brother Martin, and a younger brother Gustel. His parents were farmers and grain merchants. From 1920 to 1928 he attended the Gymnasium in the adjacent town of Brieg because Lossen was too small to have an academic high school. In Brieg the family also attended synagogue on Shabbat and the holidays.

II. Higher Education and Early Career During the Nazi Era
From 1928 to 1935, he studied at the University of Breslau, where he attended the Jüdisch-Theologisches Seminar during the years 1928 and 1929; from 1929 to 1935 he continued his rabbinical studies at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin. There he studied with Rabbi Leo Baeck and Rabbi Hanoch Albeck. At the same time, he worked on his secular studies, first at the Universität Breslau, then at the Universität Berlin. On June 18, 1936, he was awarded a doctoral degree at the University of Berlin with his dissertation Untersuchungen zur Organisation der Juden vom Babylonischen Exil bis zum Ende des Patriachats, which he also published as a book in 1936.¹ He was ordained in 1939 by Rabbi Alexander Guttman, the new rector after Ismar Elbogen had fled to the United States in 1938.
To gain teaching experience at a time, when university teaching was proscribed for Jews, he taught at the Private Waldschule Grunewald (1935–1936) and travelled to Frankfurt am Main to teach at the Philanthropin – the historic Jewish Reform school,² in 1938. There he met Lilian R. Straus-Horkheimer, a fellow instructor at the school. On August 11, 1938, the couple was married in Frankfurt am Main. 
While officiating  as rabbi in the Jewish community of Koblenz, in September 1938, within a week or two before the 1938 High Holy days, Rabbi Zucker received a phone call from his colleague and friend Rabbi Karl Richter, at the time Rabbi of Mannheim, whose brother in law Ulrich Steuer officiated in Heidelberg as rabbi, and invited him to take over the pulpit in Heidelberg as Steuer was leaving that week for the United States  where he had secured a new pulpit.³ The young couple, coming fresh from their honeymoon, moved to Heidelberg where Hans Zucker became rabbi at the Liberal Gemeinde. The move turned out to be quite fortuitous as during the pogrom of November 9 to 10, 1938, also called “Kristallnacht,” synagogues were set on fire throughout Germany including his in Heidelberg. He miraculously escaped any arrest by the Gestapo. Luck or fate saved him as the Gestapo had made their arrest lists in August when he was still living in Frankfurt and Koblenz, with the intention to make arrests earlier, on Rosh Hashanah. But since the Munich conference was taking place at that time, the Foreign Ministry delayed the roundups until after the decision on the annexation of the Sudetenland had been made in Germany. As a result, the Gestapo looked for him in Frankfurt but not in Heidelberg, which helped him to effectively hide.
Awakened at 5.00 a.m. with the news that his synagogue was engulfed in flames, and many of his congregants arrested by the Gestapo, he and Lilian went to the homes of other congregants, trying to offer comfort. Unsure why he had not been arrested, Lilian insisted that he hide in the Black Forest. After several days it became apparent, he was not being sought by the Gestapo. Lilian called her mother in Frankfurt and learned the Gestapo indeed had been looking for him there. He returned and, sensing the dire future, the couple tried to convince congregants to send their children to safety in the UK on what became known as “Kindertransport.” In Germany, Lilian’s mother and stepfather, Alice and Ernest Horkheimer, and their son Milton were able to leave Germany in late 1938, early 1939, because Ernest, a banker, had obtained British citizenship, having moved to England before World War One and only returned to Germany when he heard Alice had been widowed, and courted and married her around 1920.
At the time, American seminaries and particularly the American Reform movement had launched a major rescue effort to facilitate the immigration of German rabbis to the United States. Most of them had been forced out of the country after having been arrested during the pogrom and had to leave Germany in a hurry. In this situation many of them, like Hans Zucker, were ultimately able to leave Germany via England. They managed to obtain a preliminary visa for one year sponsored by the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, Joseph H. Hertz. After their arrival in the United Kingdom, Rabbi Hertz’s office helped coordinate the permanent settlement of the refugees and their re-distribution to other refugee countries.⁴ On April 1, 1939, Hans Zucker and his wife Lilian were able to emigrate to London.   
Hans’ parents regretfully remained in Germany, and despite efforts to find a way to rescue them, to allow them to leave, they were unable to do so. Hans had begun negotiations to rent a farm near Cleveland so that his parents could immigrate as farmers, but those efforts were apparently blocked. In the later 1930s Hans’ older brother Martin and his family were able to emigrate initially to Italy, and then on to Palestine/Israel. They lived in Israel and then moved to the United States in the mid-1950s. Hans’ younger brother Gustel was able to emigrate to England in 1939.

III. Arrival and First Years in the United States: Building a New Career in the American Jewish Community
In September 1939, the couple arrived in the United States and first settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where they were taken under the wings of Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver. After the pogrom of November 1938, Lilian’s mother (Alice Horkheimer) had contacted her relative, Virginia Silver (née Horkheimer) the wife of Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver in Cleveland asking if her son-in-law could be assisted to emigrate to the United States. With Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver being one of the most prominent rabbis in the United States, a famous Zionist and Reform leader, the Zuckers found support.  While Silver already had an assistant rabbi, Zucker became the Second Assistant Rabbi at Temple Tifereth Israel – known as “The Temple” in Cleveland, at the time the largest Reform congregation in the United States.
The Zucker’s stayed in Cleveland for close to three years (from September 1939 until late 1941, early 1942), where their first child, Miriam Hannah Alice Zucker was born in August 1940. Rabbi Silver recognized that there were a large number of German Jews in Cleveland, so he helped facilitate Rabbi Zucker to hold Shabbat services – in Hebrew and German – in the Zucker’s apartment. Over the years this group grew into one of the larger congregations in Cleveland, namely Congregation Shaarey Tikvah,⁵ with the interesting fact that they continued to hold their services in Hebrew and German until 1954 and also employed other refugee rabbis such as Dr. Hans Enoch Kronheim!
In late 1941, early 1942, the Zucker’s moved on to Reno, Nevada, where Hans Zucker, who had Americanized his name to “John,” became the rabbi of Temple Emanu-El of Reno for four years. Their son David Jeremy Fred Zucker was born there in May 1942.
In early 1946 the Zuckers moved to Alameda, California, to take on the leadership Temple Israel there. Sixteen months later, in 1947, believing that there was greater potential there, the Zuckers moved to Oakland, California, where he became the rabbi of the Hebrew Congregation of San Leandro, later to be renamed Temple Beth Sholom (TBS). At the time, the Zuckers’ third child, Daniel Moses Milton Zucker, was born in Oakland in March 1949. When Rabbi Zucker came to San Leandro, TBS had fewer than 50 member families, but he was able to build up those numbers to over 350 families which was the number when he retired in 1978. 
During the 30 years that he led TBS, he was very involved in community matters. They included both Jewish and non-Jewish projects in the greater (Jewish) community, and secular civic and charitable organizations. These encompassed the East Bay Council of Rabbis where for a period he served as president of that organization. He also was an active member of the Northern California Board of Rabbis, where he also served as president for several years. He was an active board member of the Jewish Family Service, the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation, including Secretary-Treasurer of the Synagogue Council of the East Bay. He helped with fundraising for the Jewish Welfare Fund and the Israel Bond Drive. He was very active in the wider community as well. He served as co-founder and Vice President of the East Bay Conference on Religion and Race, and a past President of the San Leandro Clergy Association and was a member of the United Bay Area Crusade’s⁶ allocation committee, and a longtime member in San Leandro of Rotary International, a professional service organization. For two decades he taught Bible studies at Chabot College. He also helped to establish the Fargo Senior Center elder housing program.

IV. John J. Zucker’s Career and Reflections on His Rabbinate
Rabbi Zucker was both a scholar and a congregational rabbi. He had a fine command of history, and especially Jewish history. His great love was the Bible, and he derived much pleasure in teaching Bible in a variety of contexts throughout his life, on the college campus, and several other venues. He enjoyed working with his people, and his congregation extended beyond the membership of Temple Beth Sholom. His people were Jews and non-Jews alike. He took a great interest in the wider secular community and he more than repaid his civic rent. He was proud of his American citizenship and grateful to the country that had adopted him, providing him – providing them, Rabbi and Lilian R. Zucker – a safe home and haven. At the same time, he was totally committed to Israel and Judaism and worked tirelessly and proudly for both.
The Holocaust scarred him. His own parents had been murdered by the Nazis. He had not been able to rescue them from the inferno, and when they died, he carried this grief within himself all his life.
Temple Beth Sholom in San Leandro⁷ was his life for more than 30 years. When he came to be its rabbi TBS was a small building on Chumalia Street. By hard work, through years of effort and cajoling, sweet talk and patience, he built up the congregation. Property was bought on Dolores Street and first a multi-purpose room with classrooms was built in 1953, and then eventually in 1964, a dedicated sanctuary. The building itself was both functional at a very high level, and architecturally a beautiful structure, making wonderful use of woods and colors, light and abstract images, plus magnificent metal sculptured Judaica for the Ner Tamid, Torah breast plates and windows, created by the German Jewish artist Victor Ries (1907–2013).⁸
For more than 40 years his shared love with his devoted wife Lilian, their commitment to each other, their mutual support through times of great stress and danger, but also great joys and achievements, was a source of joy and pride for them and for the family. Rabbi Zucker lives on, literally through his family, but in a wider sense through the hundreds of people who knew him and were influenced by his life. As a congregational rabbi he officiated at the life cycle events of his people: births, bar and bat mitzvahs, confirmations, weddings and funerals. He was honest in all his relationships, and it was well known that he would not say anything untrue when he spoke, even when it may have been a challenge, for example, when officiating at a funeral, but he always found something positive in everyone he encountered. He was loved and respected. Husband, father, grandfather, teacher, rabbi, counselor, friend. Rabbi Zucker was all these and more.

Works Cited

Alemannia Judaica. “Heidelberg.” https://www.alemannia-judaica.de/heidelberg_rabbiner_lehrer.htm.
Congregation Shaarey Tikvah. “Our History.” https://www.shaareytikvah.org/welcome/our-history/.
“Metal Man: The Story of Victor Ries.” Chayes Productions. https://www.chayesproductions.com/metal-man.html.
Temple Beth Sholom, San Leandro. “A Brief History.” http://www.tbssanleandro.org/ourhistory.html.
UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library. Regional Oral History Office, RENAISSANCE OF RELIGIOUS ART AND ARCHITECTURE IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, 1946-1968, VOLUME II. “Interview with Victor Ries.”  https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/217559/files/renaissance_v2.pdf.
“Victor Ries@100 – Artistry in Metal.” YouTube. 9:58 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4Bnb75DjP4.
Wikipedia. “Philanthropin.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philanthropin.
Wilhelm, Cornelia. The Last Generation of the German Rabbinate: German Refugee Rabbis in the United States, 1933-2010. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2024
Zucker, Hans. Untersuchungen zur Organisation der Juden vom Babylonischen Exil bis zum Ende des Patriachats. Leipzig: Schmidt, Berlin, 1936 [also Phil. Diss. Universität Berlin, June 18, 1936].

Outstanding Scholarly Works and Digital Resources

UC Berkeley, BancRef, The West on Videotape, 1974–1978, Motion Picture 350 D, “Little Shul” by John Zucker: The Oldest Remaining Synagogue in California Interviewed 1976 by Steve Fisher. Videotape, 30 min., Religion, history, and architecture meet in this contemporary tour of a restored synagogue in San Leandro. The structure, dubbed “Little Shul” (“little school”), dates back to 1889, and the congregation itself had its roots in the 1850s. The tour guide is Rabbi John J. Zucker, who retired in 1978 after 31 years as leader of Temple Beth Sholom. Included are interior shots of ceremonial objects in this structure which is still used weekly.  Sponsor: Chabot College:
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf2m3n9907_c000014.
UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library, Western Jewish History Center, Vertical files, 1868–2010, bulk 1967-2010, BANC MSS 2010/775, Rabbi John J. Zucker 1977. https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8416zqc.
UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library, John J. Zucker marriage licenses, 1943–1945. https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/991077707879706532.
UC Berkeley. Bancroft Library. Regional Oral History Office, RENAISSANCE OF RELIGIOUS ART AND ARCHITECTURE IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, 1946-1968, VOLUME II. “Interview with Victor Ries.”  https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/217559/files/renaissance_v2.pdf.
Zucker, Hans. Studien zur Jüdischen Selbstverwaltung im Altertum. Berlin: Schocken Verlag, 1936.

Short Bio of the Author: Miriam H. Bent (née Zucker) is the eldest child of Rabbi John J. and Lilian R. Zucker, born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1940. She has resided in Palm Springs, California since 1983, coming to the community when her husband (Nat Bent, deceased 2022) became its first full-time Jewish Federation Director. She has her BA in Criminology and worked as a probation officer originally in Modesto, California, and then, following her marriage, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. For the past 35 years she has been the editor of the Jewish Community News of the greater Palm Springs/Desert community.

Short Bio of the Author: Rabbi Dr. Daniel M. Zucker is the third child of Rabbi Dr. John J. Zucker and Dr. Lilian R. Zucker. He resides in Hackettstown, NJ, and serves as rabbi of Temple Israel of the Poconos in Stroudsburg, PA. He was ordained at HUC-JIR in Cincinnati in 1978, writing his rabbinic thesis for the late Professor Rabbi Alexander Guttmann who had ordained his father (Rabbi Dr. John J. Zucker) in 1938. Rabbi Daniel Zucker has served Conservative congregations around the United States. He taught Hebrew as an Adjunct Professor of Hebrew in the Department of Foreign Languages at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University. While serving as the International President of the American Rabbinic Network for Ethiopian Jews (1987 to 1991) he successfully negotiated the release of 150 Ethiopian Jews to make Aliyah to Israel. Serving for seven years (1984 to 1991) as president of the L.A. based Organization for Ethiopian Jewry, he raised funds to redeem yet another 40 Jews from Ethiopia. Following in the footsteps of his late father in the area of human rights, he founded Americans for Democracy in the Middle East in 2005 which supports the Iranian resistance movement in its desire to remove the theocratic regime from that nation. He has authored over 100 articles in that regard and organized and participated in hearings in the House and Senate as well as delivered speeches at the international convocations of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Paris. He is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly and maintains his own webpage (https://middle-eastanalysis-commentary.blogspot.com/).

Short Bio of the Author: Rabbi David J. Zucker, Ph.D. is the second child of Rabbi John J. and Lilian R. Zucker. He resides in Aurora, Colorado. Ordained in 1970 from HUC-JIR, he has led congregations in England and the United States. For several years he taught as an Assistant Professor in the Religious Studies Department at Teikyo Loretto Heights University in Denver. Before retiring in 2011, he spent many years as the Chaplain/Director of Spiritual Care at Shalom Park, a senior continuum of care center in Aurora, Colorado. He is the author of seven books, the latest being American Rabbis: Facts and Fiction, second edition (2019) which considers how American rabbis are portrayed in fiction. He publishes regularly in professional journals in the areas of Bible, chaplaincy, and American fiction, with a sub-specialty in women rabbis, and Rebbetzins (Rabbi’s spouses) in fiction, and maintains a webpage (https://www.davidjzucker.org/).