DROB, MAX

DROB, MAX (1887–1959), U.S. Conservative rabbi. Drob was born in Mlawa, Poland, and was taken to the United States in 1895. He graduated from Columbia University (1908) and received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary (1911), and served congregations in Syracuse, New York (1911–13), Buffalo, New York (1913–19), New York City   (1919–27), and Philadelphia (1927–29). From 1929 he was rabbi of the Concourse Center of Israel, Bronx, New York, where he remained for the rest of his career. Drob was president of the Rabbinical Assembly of America from 1925 to 1927, and chairman of its bet din from 1923 to 1941. He was regarded as belonging to the traditionalist wing of Conservative Judaism seeking to transmit traditional religious practice in a manner more decorous and more American. He was actively involved in the professionalization of the rabbinate with such issues as rabbinic placement and pension determined by regulations and procedures. He was president of the non-denominational New York Board of Rabbis 1933–34 and also served as a member of the commission set up by New York State to supervise the enforcement of kashrut laws, at a time before the Orthodox Union had established its domination of kashrut. He was a founder of the United Synagogue of America and on the board of the Jewish Theological Seminary. -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: P.S. Nadel, Conservative Judaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook (1988). (Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)