Rabbi Levi A. Olan: (An Untired Liberal)

To be rewarded for doing good
is to rob goodness of any moral quality. It then becomes good business.
It pays to be good. Morality is NOT a commercial enterprise.

— Rabbi Levi A. Olan

This is the story of Rabbi Levi A. Olan, a prominent liberal mind in American Reform Judaism from the decades of the 1930s through the 1970s, who spoke out on the issues of the day, while struggling to correct the dilemmas that society was inflicting upon its less fortunate members.

He was a staunch supporter of human equality, especially with respect to social, political, and economic rights and privileges, and his social justice philosophy advocated removal of the disparities and injustices among people. As reflected in his monographs and sermons, Olan’s three basic doctrines of faith were rooted “in the family of man, the demands of justice, and the dignity of the human personality,” principles that he believed could not be taught without relating them to existent conditions.