A Tribute to Leo Pfeffer (1909-1993)
![handle is hein.journals/jchs35 and id is 611 raw text is: A Tribute to Leo Pfeffer (1909-1993)
Leo Pfeffer, one of America's foremost scholars, authors, and
jurists of church-state relations, died 4 June 1993 at the age of
83, in Goshen, New York. Born in Hungary, the son of a Jewish
rabbi, he was brought to the United States by his parents when
he was two years old. A graduate of the City College of New
York (B.S.S.) and the New York University School of Law (J.D.),
he was widely recognized for more than three decades as one
the nation's outstanding authorities on church and state. His
prodigious scholarship earned him the respect and stature ac-
corded few scholars at anytime, anywhere. In addition to his
voluminous writings, including his classic work Church, State,
and Freedom, he probably argued more church-state cases
before the United States Supreme Court than anyone else in
American history, serving as counsel in almost 50 percent of all
the cases on the Establishment Clause to be litigated in the
United States Supreme Court. As Samuel Krislov wrote in a vol-
ume of essays written in honor of Leo Pfeffer, No one comes to
mind... to rival Pfeffer's intellectual dominance over so vital an
area [i.e. church and state] of constitutional law for so extensive
a period in this combination of pleading and intellectualizing.
It was widely conceded, even by those holding sharply differing
views, that it was Leo Pfeffer's view of the Establishment Clause
more than any other that for almost three decades formed the
Supreme Court's interpretation of it.
Admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-three, he was ac-
tively engaged in the practice of law for more than a half cen-
tury, almost twenty years of which were spent with the
American Jewish Congress in various capacities as director of
the Commission on Law and Social Action, general counsel, and
finally as special counsel. In addition, he served as counsel to
the New York Committee for Public Education and Religious
Liberty (PEARL) and the National Coalition for PEARL from
its founding until 1985. His professional responsibilities also in-
cluded: Lecturer, New School of Social Research, 1954-60, and
Mt. Holyoke College, 1958-60; David W. Petergorksy Professor
of Constitutional Law, Yeshiva University, 1962-63; and Profes-
sor and Chair of Political Science, Long Island University, 1964-
1979, where he continued to teach until 1985.
Recognition of his work came from many and varied sources,
including: the L.H.D. degree from Hebrew Union College;](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jchs35&div=40&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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A Tribute to Leo Pfeffer (1909-1993)
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