Ferdinand M. Isserman (1898-1972), born in Antwerp, Belgium, was a Reform movement rabbi in the United States. His family immigrated to the United States in 1906, settling in Newark, New Jersey, In 1914, Isserman entered Hebrew Union College (HUC), in conjunction with the University of Cincinnati, he studied for his bachelor's degree while training for the rabbinate. In 1917, he received a Bachelor of Hebrew Letters degree from HUC. In 1919, Isserman completed the requirements for a bachelor's degree from the University of Cincinnati and three years later (June 1922) he was ordained a rabbi. While in school, Isserman participated in various extra-curricular activities. He was on both the University of Cincinnati and the HUC basketball teams (lettering in basketball at the University of Cincinnati), he served as president of the HUC Literary Society in 1920-1921, and in 1921-1922 he was president of the HUC student body. Upon ordination, Isserman became Assistant Rabbi under Rev. Dr. Harry W. Ettelson at Rodeph Shalom Congregation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He remained in this position for three years, during which he Studied at the University of Pennsylvania, receiving a Master of Arts degree in comparative religion in 1924. In 1925, Isserman assumed the position of rabbi of the Toronto Hebrew Congregation ("Holy Blossom") in Canada. In Toronto, Isserman distinguished himself by arranging Canada's first pulpit exchange between a Christian minister and a Jewish rabbi. In 1929, Isserman became rabbi of Temple Israel in St. Louis, Missouri, where he remained through 1963. Isserman visited Nazi Germany three times (in 1933, 1935 and 1937) and participated in many civic as well as Jewish oriented organizations. Some of his more prominent activities included: conducting weekly Jewish programs on local radio stations (1932-1963), holding an annual Institute on Judaism for the Christian Clergy at Temple Israel (1937-1962), serving as president of the University of Missouri Jewish Student Foundation (1940-1947), spending one year overseas during World War Ⅱ with the American Red Cross (1943), serving as first president of the combined Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Alumni Association (1950-1951), chairing both the American Jewish Tercentenary Committee of St. Louis and the American Jewish Tercentenary Committee of Missouri (1954), serving as the American chairman of the World Union for Progressive Judaism (1955-1956), and chairing the Thomas C. Hennings Jr. Memorial Committee (1960). He was very active with the CCAR's Commission on Justice and Peace from 1942 through 1950, serving as chairman from 1942 through 1945. In 1942, Isserman helped organize and presided over the Commission's American Institute on Judaism and A Just and Enduring Peace. In 1945 he organized the Commission's Institute on Judaism and Race Relations, and in 1950 he helped organize the CCAR's Institute on Reform Jewish Theology Today.