Rabbi Seymour Siegel; Leading Jewish Scholar

Rabbi Seymour Siegel, 61, a leading theologian of Conservative Judaism. He had been associated with the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York for the last 41 years and his extensive writings helped pave the way for the ordination of women as Conservative rabbis, among other innovations. He was a visiting senior research fellow at the Kennedy Institute for Bioethics at Georgetown University and a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, both in Washington. President Reagan appointed him to the U.S. Holocaust Council. He also served on the President’s Commission on Ethics in Medicine and Biomedical Research and on the Advisory Council of the Republican National Committee. In New York on Wednesday of what was reported only as a “long illness.”