Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Rabbi Balfour Brickner, 78, Fought for Social Justice

Rabbi Balfour Brickner, a leader of the Reform movement, died Monday at age 78. Brickner was the former spiritual leader of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City and a long-serving member of the professional staff of the Union for Reform Judaism. He fought for equality and social justice across the globe, from the segregated American South in the 1960s, to Vietnam in the early 1970s, to Nicaragua in the 1980s. Most notably, he advocated on behalf of Israel throughout his long career, and he was among the first American Jews to travel to Israel at the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

In addition to carrying out social justice work, Brickner was the founding rabbi of Temple Sinai in Washington, D.C., director of the Reform movement’s Commission on Interreligious Affairs and a member of the executive staff of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for Reform Judaism).

“The silencing of his strong, unwavering voice in these struggles is a loss for our movement, for the Jewish people and for all who strive to repair our broken world,” said Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.