Orthodox Union history

In 1906, controversy erupted over public school teachers in New York City compelling Jewish pupils to take part in Christmas-related activities.

The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote, was adopted in 1920.

The Orthodox Union, for its part, in 1923 established its Women’s Branch, which assumed the task of overseeing the sisterhoods in hundreds of Orthodox synagogues nationwide.

Not only the functional character and scope of the service was beyond envisionment when that first step was taken in 1924; even more extraordinary, even more significant, would be the impact of the Orthodox Union’s service on Jewish life.

In 1935, Goldstein left the OU and started his own organization, Organized Kashruth Laboratories (OK). The wide acceptance of OU kashrut supervision rested largely upon the outstanding reputation of its rabbinic administrator, Rabbi Alexander S. Rosenberg.

OU operations became more efficient with the appointment in 1939 of Leo S. Hilsenrad as its first full-time professional executive director.

OU operations became more efficient with the appointment in 1939 of Leo S. Hilsenrad as its first full-time professional executive director. Its services were further expanded in 1946, with the addition of Saul Bernstein to the professional staff.

Only around 1950 did Conservative and Modern Orthodox Judaism fully coalesce as opposing movements.

Bernstein became the founding editor, in 1951, of Jewish Life, the OU's popular publication for Orthodox laymen.

The National Conference of Synagogue Youth was set up in 1954.

A 1956 ad for a convention of the OU Women’s Branch.

Doctor Rafael Medoff is founding director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies in Washington, DC, and author of fourteen books about Jewish history, Zionism and the Holocaust, including the Historical Dictionary of Zionism (with Chaim I. Waxman [2008]).

In 2014, the first women were elected as national officers of the OU; specifically, three female national vice presidents and two female associate vice presidents were elected.