Balfour Brickner (November 18, 1926 - August 29, 2005) was a leading rabbi in the Reform Judaism movement, who was rabbi emeritus of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan. Rabbi Brickner was a longtime political activist who was involved in the civil rights struggle (he was arrested at the Monson Motor Lodge in St. Augustine, Florida on June 18, 1964, as part of the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history, having gone there at th...
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Balfour Brickner (November 18, 1926 - August 29, 2005) was a leading rabbi in the Reform Judaism movement, who was rabbi emeritus of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan. Rabbi Brickner was a longtime political activist who was involved in the civil rights struggle (he was arrested at the Monson Motor Lodge in St. Augustine, Florida on June 18, 1964, as part of the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history, having gone there at the urging of Martin Luther King), the Vietnam antiwar movement (traveling to Paris with an interfaith peace group to meet with Viet Cong leaders) and efforts supporting a woman's right to choose abortion.
He lived in Fort Lee, New Jersey and Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Rabbi Brickner was born in Cleveland, Ohio, where his father, Barnett, led Congregation Anshe Chesed, one of the country's largest Reform congregations. Balfour Brickner served in the United States Navy during World War II. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1948,...
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