POUPKO, BERNARD

POUPKO, BERNARD (1918– ), U.S. Orthodox rabbi. Poupko, who was born in Russia, was ordained by the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1941 and was appointed rabbi of Pittsburgh's Sha'are Torah Congregation in 1942. He served there for more than 60 years until 2004. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh on alternatives in adult Jewish education. He was a founder of the Hillel Academy in Pittsburgh. Poupko visited the U.S.S.R. several times after 1964. He was one of the first rabbis to visit the Soviet Union and wrote extensively on Soviet Jewry. He edited or co-edited a 38-volume series for the Rabbinical Council of America including volumes in memory and in honor of Bernard Revel and Norman Lamm, Chief Rabbi Herzog of Israel and The Rav, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. A collection of his articles based on his Russian visits was published as In the Shadow of the Kremlin (1969). In 1970 he became president of Mizrachi in the U.S. He was a national vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America and for 50 years was president of the Rabbinical Council of Pittsburgh, where he was a most influential Orthodox leader. (Louis Bernstein / Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)