Lieber, David Leo

▪ 2009

      Polish-born American rabbi, educator, and intellectual

born Feb. 20, 1925, Stryj, Pol. [now Stryy, Ukr.

died Dec. 15, 2008, Beverly Hills, Calif.

was an esteemed biblical scholar who served as the general editor of Etz Hayim (2001), a modern Torah commentary for Conservative Judaism; the publication, which was more than 20 years in the making and included essays by more than 40 scholars, took a less-literal approach to the Torah than had the commentary that it replaced, one authored by Joseph H. Hertz, the chief rabbi of the British Empire, in the 1930s. Lieber was long associated with the University of Judaism (renamed American Jewish University in 2007) in Bel-Air, Calif. He became the university's dean of students in 1956 and served (1964–93) as its president. He also was (1996–98) president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis.

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