Herbert Tarr (1929 – November 18, 1993), born Herbert Targovik, was an American Reformrabbi who left his pulpit to become a novelist and humorist, believing he could reach more people that way because "religion is basically out of touch with people."[1]
Following his service as a chaplain, Tarr served as the rabbi of a synagogue in Buffalo, New York. In 1960, he moved to a congregation in Westbury, New York.[1] In 1963 he decided to leave the pulpit to pursue a career as a novelist full-time,[3] believing that he could be more effective in terms of reaching others that way.
He said, "[R]eligion is basically out of touch with people".[1] He wanted to help people "contemplate their lives," to consider "how they fit into the world around them".[1] He wrote with humor, through stories that carried values and ideals.[1] As the playwright Brendan Behan wrote in a review for his first novel, The Conversion of Chaplain Cohen (1963), while Tarr "has us busy laughing, he's throwing sermons at us behind our backs".[1][4]
A Kirkus Review of his work So Help Me God! affirmed Tarr's mixture of humor and serious messages, noting that
Tarr's easy-going and companionable rambles through American Jews' spiritual and secular preoccupations (Heaven Help Us!, 1968) continue to amuse, but here he explores some deeply serious and disturbing matters such as Vietnam, the plight of Soviet Jewry, and the essence of religion.[5]
Tarr used his experiences as a pulpit rabbi and military chaplain to inform his writings, and also used his rabbinic knowledge.[6] For example, his novel, A Time for Loving, is based on the Biblical book, The Song of Solomon (also known as the Song of Songs).[6]
Tarr wrote one play, "The New Frontier," a comedy that held tryouts in New Haven and Philadelphia, with the hope that it would make it to Broadway.[7]
The North Shore Institute for Adult Jewish Learning, a joint educational program serving 18 synagogues and one Jewish community center in the Long Island area,[8] was renamed the Herbert Tarr North Shore Institute for Adult Jewish Learning in his memory.[9] The 2012 season of the Jewish Studies and Lectures Program opened at Temple Judea in Roslyn, New York in October 2012.[10]
Tarr's 1979 novel, So Help Me God!, published seven years after the 1972 ordination of Sally Priesand includes a rabbinical student Isaca Zion. Zion is an important figure in the novel, but is not portrayed as the protagonist. By the end of the novel, Zion receives ordination. It is thought that Zion is the first fictional woman rabbi in contemporary American fiction.[11]
