Rabbi Bernard Berzon Dies at 76

May 15, 1989

Rabbi Bernard L. Berzon, spiritual leader for 43 years of Congregation Ahavath Israel, now called Young Israel of Avenue K in the Flatbush-Midwood section of Brooklyn, died Thursday after heart surgery at New York Hospital. He was 76 years old and had lived in Jerusalem since his retirement in 1982.

Rabbi Berzon was president of the Rabbinical Council of America, the principal organization of the Orthodox faith, from 1970 to 1972, and was vice president of the Religious Zionists of America from 1971 to 1973.

He was born in Plissa, Lithuania, and came to the United States with his family at age 12. He was a 1935 graduate of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University and received a master's degree in labor economics from the University of Maine.

He is survived by his wife, the former Sylvia Goldentyer; two daughters, Judith Greenwald of Brooklyn and Adina Gertz of Jerusalem; two sons, Rabbis Chananya and Azarya, both of Jerusalem; two sisters, Faygle Kaye of Los Angeles and Shimka Sabenson of Brooklyn; 15 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.