Bernard M. Casper

He was born in London, his father was from Kovno in the Russian Federation. Both his parents died when he was three years old and he was subsequently raised by his grandparents and a cousin. He won a scholarship to study at Trinity College, Cambridge and also began his rabbinical studies. ==Career==

He moved to Israel in 1948 to complete his rabbinical studies and then returned to England where he was Head of Jewish Education and then rabbi at Western Marble Arch Synagogue. On the advice of Israel's Chief Rabbi he took up the position of Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregation of Johannesburg. In 1964 he became Chief Rabbi of the Federation of Synagogues of South Africa. One of his significant achievements was the 1965 concordat he arrived at with Chief Minister of the United Progressive Jewish Congregations, Rabbi Arthur Saul Super. They agreed that from "the religious point of view there is an unbridgeable gulf between Orthodoxy and Reform." He retired in 1987, made aliyah to Israel and died eighteen months later in Jerusalem. ==References==