Rabbi Israel Dresner was a civil rights activist who protested segregation alongside his friend, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968).
- Died: January 13, 2022 (Who else died on January 13?)
- Details of death: Died in Wayne, New Jersey of colon cancer at the age of 92.
- We invite you to share condolences for Rabbi Israel Dresner in our Guest Book.
“The most arrested rabbi in America”
Dresner began his life of activism young, well before he became a rabbi, as World War II raged overseas. He was arrested at the age of 18 for protesting the British government’s refusal to let a ship carrying Holocaust survivors land in Palestine. It was the first of many arrests for the man who would come to be called “the most arrested rabbi in America.”
After serving in the U.S. Army and becoming a rabbi in the 1950s, Dresner joined the Freedom Riders in the first Interfaith Freedom Ride in 1961. There, 10 clergy members rode interstate buses into the segregated South to challenge their disregard for the federal law stating that public transportation must be integrated. He was arrested then, in Tallahassee as he attempted to integrate an airport restaurant. The following year, Dresner met King in a Georgia jail where they were both incarcerated for marching for civil rights. The two became friends, and King preached at Dresner’s Temple Sha’arey Shalom in Springfield, New Jersey, on two occasions. Dresner delivered a prayer in Selma, Alabama, just after the famous attempt to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
In later years, Dresner continued agitating for human rights, including protesting apartheid in South Africa. He led Temple Beth Tikvah in Wayne, New Jersey until his retirement in 1996. Dresner was honored by President Obama in a White House ceremony upon the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.
Notable quote
“I want to be remembered as somebody who not only tried to keep the Jewish faith but to invoke the Jewish doctrine from the Talmud, which is called ‘tikkun olam’ — repairing the world — and I hope that I made a little bit of a contribution to making the world a little better place.” —from a 2021 interview with WCBS-TV
Tributes to Rabbi Israel Dresner
Full obituary: The New York Times
