Zalman I. Posner
American rabbi and writer
Rabbi Zalman I. Posner (Hebrew: זלמן פוזנר; 1927–April 23, 2014) was an American rabbi and writer associated with the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. Posner served as a congregational rabbi and community leader in the American Southeast for five decades, serving the Orthodox congregation Sherith Israel and founding an Orthodox Day School both in Nashville, Tennessee.
Activities
In early 1948, Posner was sent as a shaliach ("emissary") to DP camps and Jewish communities in Europe for education work. On his return to the States, he became the principal of the Yeshiva in Springfield, Massachusetts.
In September 1949, Posner and his wife Risya came to Nashville, Tennessee, as the first Chabad emissaries to the state, a position they held for 53 years. In 1954, they founded the Akiva School in Nashville. In September 1957, Posner assumed deanship of the Yeshiva Achei Tmimim of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, founded by his parents. Despite his out-of-state duties, he continued to guide the Jewish community of Nashville as Rabbi and Principal of the Akiva Day School for many years.
Works
Posner's main written work is his book on Judaism in modern life titled Think Jewish and published by Kesher Press in 1979 and republished in 2002. His other authored work concerns the weekly portion of the Hebrew Bible, titled Reflections on the Sedra.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16171331. VIAF identifies the subject as 18496663. The Library of Congress control number is n79039170. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1927, 2014, 1948 and 1949.
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This entry incorporates text from “Zalman I. Posner” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.