Roland B. Gittelsohn (May 13, 1910December 13, 1995) was an American rabbi and author. He served as founding rabbi of Central Synagogue in Rockville Center, New York from 1936-1953. He was the first Jewish chaplain assigned to the United States Marine Corps, serving in the U. S. Navy during World War II. In 1945, he delivered a eulogy after the Battle of Iwo Jima dedicating the 5th Marine Division's cemetery. Its text was republished widely. (The division held separate Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish dedication ceremonies.) Gittelsohn was Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel in Boston from 1953-1977.
After the war, Gittelsohn served on the President's Committee on Civil Rights in Harry Truman's administration. He later served as president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
Gittelsohn was born on 13 May 1910 in Cleveland, Ohio. Graduating Phi Beta Kappa, he received a bachelor of arts degree in 1931 from Western Reserve University in Cleveland and a bachelor of Hebrew letters from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 1934. He was ordained at Hebrew Union College in 1936. He also studied at the Teachersâ College, Columbia University and New School in New York.
He was president of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis from 1958 to 1960; president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis from 1969 to 1971, and president of the Association of Reform Zionists of America from 1977 to 1984.
Gittelsohn died in 1995 at the age of 85 at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He had two children, David and Judith, with Ruth Freyer, whom he married in 1932. The couple were married until Ruth's death in 1970. In 1978, Gittelsohn married Hulda, who died in 2017.