Rabbi, author, and Zionist leader. Brought to the U.S. from Lithuania as a child, Silver rose to a position of leadership in American Zionism in the years of struggle that preceded the creation of a Jewish state. He prepared for the rabbinate at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. In 1917 he took the pulpit of The Temple in Cleveland, Ohio, a post he held for the rest of his life. During the 1940’s when Zionists were undecided whether to cooperate with England or to oppose it on the question of Jewish statehood in Palestine, Silver came to head the “activist” opposition faction. As chairman of the American Zionist Emergency Council from 1945 to 1948, and of the American Section of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, he led the campaign that gained U.S. support for a Jewish state. From 1946 to 1948, Silver was also president of the Zionist Organization of America. In 1956, he became chairman of the Bonds for Israel.