Philip R. Alstat

Who was Philip R. Alstat?

Philip Reis Alstat was a well-known American Conservative rabbi, teacher, chaplain, speaker and writer. Born in Kaunas, Lithuania, he came to the United States in 1898, studying at City College of New York, Columbia University, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he received semikhah, rabbinic ordination, in 1920, and the Doctor of Divinity degree, in 1966.

For many years, he lived at JTS, serving as an informal and unofficial in-house counselor and mentor for generations of rabbinical students. In addition to his experience as a pulpit rabbi in New York synagogues including Congregation Shaare Zedek on Manhattan's upper-West side, he was a chaplain for a number of New York institutions, including The Tombs, the Manhattan Detention Complex, and oversaw courses for prospective converts to Judaism in New York City. For more than four decades, he wrote the widely syndicated weekly newspaper column, Strange to Relate.