Colish / Samuels Family Papers

Raised in Houston, Rabbi Robert (Bob) Lewis Samuels was born in 1933. He attended Lanier Junior High School, San Jacinto High School, and then Brandeis University before marrying Annette Colish. The couple moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where Bob was ordained as a Reform rabbi, and in 1962, he and Annette made aliyah to Israel, where they raised their three children and committed themselves to building a movement of Progressive Judaism.

Rabbi Samuels became the second headmaster of the Leo Baeck School in Haifa, building during his 25 years at its helm not only a secondary school, but also a school for children from preschool through high school, and a community center at Leo Baeck. He also established two synagogues in Haifa and mentored many leaders of the Reform Movement in Israel and North America.

Rabbi Samuels struggled for the rights of Conservative and Progressive Jews, helping sustain the Reform Movement in Israel for more than 50 years. A founding member of the Israeli Council of Progressive Rabbis, and the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, the Rabbi was also deeply involved in helping to resettle Ethiopian Jews, and was recognized with the Carmel Award of Merit by Haifa University.