Abba Hillel Silver (1893–1963), U.S. Reform Rabbi and Zionist leader was born in Sirvintos, Lithuania, the son of a Hebrew teacher. Jewish learning and scholarship became a lifelong interest.

It was as a Zionist leader and statesman that Silver made his greatest mark. He was among the early organizers of the anti-Nazi boycott. In 1938 he became chairman of the United Palestine Appeal and co-chairman of the United Jewish Appeal. He did not believe, however, that philanthropy was the solution for Jewish difficulties. To him statehood was the only answer and the growing Jewish community of Palestine the chief hope. "Zionism is not refugeeism," he was fond of saying. With the outbreak of World War II, Silver saw the oppurtunity to achieve the Herzlian goal of a national state. He perceived that the postwar influence of the United States would be decisive, and winning the support of its people and government the crucial task. In 1943 he was called to lead the recently organized American Zionist Emergency Council which was phenomenally successful in the pursuit of the policy set by Silver, of mobilizing public opinion, both Jewish and non-Jewish, on behalf of the Zionist cause. The results were evident in the passage by Congress of resolutions favoring the establishment of a Jewish Commonwealth and in commitments from the Republican and Democratic party platforms. He reached the climax of his Zionist leadership when on May 8, 1947, as chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency, he presented the case for an independent Jewish state before the Assembly of the United Nations. He may therefore be considered one of the architects of modern Israel. Silver was a "right-wing" member in the Zionist movement. Also in U. S. politics he was one of the few major Jewish figures identified with the Republican party.