Hayyim Herman Kieval was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1920 to Sarah and Isadore Kieval. He attended both public school and Hebrew school in Baltimore. Kieval received his BA from Johns Hopkins University in 1939, was ordained and received his masters degree from The Jewish Theological Seminary in 1942 and earned a doctorate in Hebrew literature at the Seminary in 1977. After Rabbi Kieval's ordination he went into the pulpit at Congregation Beth Judah in Ventnor, New Jersey where he remained from 1942 to 1944. In 1944 Kieval enlisted in the United States Army as a chaplain. After a year of training and serving in Hawaii and Okinawa, Kieval became the first Jewish chaplain of the Army of Occupation in Korea. He served in Korea from 1945 to 1946, attaining the rank of captain. One of his duties was to edit, Kol Korea (voice of Korea), copies of which are in this collection. After his army service Kieval returned to the United States and to the pulpit, serving in Grand Rapids, Michigan at Congregation Ahavas Israel from 1946 to 1950. In 1950 he moved into a pulpit in Pittsburgh, Congregation Beth Shalom, where he served until 1954. In 1955, he went to Temple Israel in Albany, New York where he served as rabbi for thirty-one years until his retirement in 1986. He was rabbi emeritus at Temple Israel until his death. From 1958 to 1980 Kieval taught Jewish liturgy at The Jewish Theological Seminary. In 1959 the United Synagogue of America published the first volume of his major study, The High Holy Days, which deals with the prayerbook for Rosh Hashanah.

Kieval started a second volume, on Yom Kippur, but never completed it. He also wrote a number of articles on the liturgy for the Encyclopedia Judaica, and contributed to the editing of several prayer books. Kieval taught at a number of other colleges in addition to the Seminary. These include the State University of New York at Albany; St. Michael's College, Winooski, Vermont; Notre Dame University; and Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1983 Kieval established the Jewish-Christian Institute of Siena College in Loudonville, New York.

He ran colloquia there on interfaith issues and was a guest lecturer in many different organizations on this topic. Rabbi Kieval received honorary doctorates from Baltimore Hebrew College, 1969; Jewish Theological Seminary, 1971; and Siena College, 1974. Siena College, additionally, held a colloquium in Kieval's honor following his death in 1991.