Rabbi Mordecai I. Soloff, 91; Author of Jewish Texts

Rabbi Mordecai I. Soloff, who served Reform Jewish congregations in Culver City and Westchester and who was known nationally for his trilogy of Jewish history, has died in Rancho Mirage.

A family spokesman said he was 91 when he died Friday while on vacation with his daughter, Tamar Brower.

His books, published in the 1930s and ‘40s, became standard texts for Reform and Conservative Jewish religious schools. More recently he had published a new series of textbooks for Jewish schools and was working on a second series at his death.

His works included the trilogy “When the Jewish People Was Young,” “How the Jewish People Grew Up” and “How the Jewish People Lives Today.”

Soloff immigrated to the United States from Russia with his family in 1910. He held degrees from City College of New York, Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary.

He was a Hebrew school principal in Baltimore, New York City, Chicago and elsewhere before deciding to become a Reform rabbi.

Before coming to Westchester in 1952 he led temples in Wisconsin, Virginia, New York and Maryland and after his retirement, was an interim rabbi in Perth, Australia, from 1983 to 1984. At his death he was rabbi emeritus of Temple Akiba in Culver City, which had merged with his old Temple Jeremiah of Westchester

Besides his daughter, he is survived by a son, Rabbi Rav Soloff, a brother, seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, who ask donations in his name to the Jewish National Fund in Los Angeles.