Rabbi Morton Hoffman is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, a graduate of its public school system and a graduate of Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University.  From there Rabbi Hoffman went on to the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion where he was ordained in 1953 and where he earned a Master of Hebrew Letters degree.  Rabbi Hoffman went on to earn his Doctor of Hebrew Letters degree for further academic work done at the Los Angeles campus of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.  His research was done in the field of Yiddish Poetry of the Holocaust period.  His dissertation was entitled "Yitzhak Katznelson, Poet of the Hurban."  Rabbi Hoffman was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from his alma mater in 1978.

Rabbi Hoffman spent the first two years of his rabbinate as a Chaplain in the U.S. Army.  The Korean War had ended on the very day that he was sworn as an officer in the Army but he served in the Far East nevertheless.  He then served in pulpits in Philadelphia and in San Rafael, CA .  He was the founding rabbi of Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael and he served for a time as President of the Board of Rabbis of Northern California.  But the most important event in his life during his years in California was meeting Aviva, subsequently marrying her, and raising his family of four daughters, Sharona, Ronit, Dalia and Yael.  In 1970 Rabbi Hoffman made Aliyah to Israel. 

There he served at Congregation Or Hadash in Haifa, Israel and upon returning to the U.S. in 1974 he continued his rabbinate by serving in San Francisco, and then in Miami.  In 1983, Rabbi Hoffman came to East Lansing where he has served at Congregation Shaarei Zedek until today.  He retired in 1997, was called back into service when his successor unexpectedly left in 2000 and re-retired in 2003.

Rabbi Hoffman remains rabbi emeritus of Congregation Shaarey Zedek where he aids the current clergypersons Rabbi Richard Baroff and Cantor Pamela Schiffer by conducting services when they are out of town, by continuing to teach his two decade old Bible class, by visiting the sick especially those who fall ill among the "old time" members of the congregation, and making himself available whenever they request his help.