Albert Vorspan

Albert Vorspan (February 12, 1924 – February 16, 2019) was an American author and long-time leader of Reform Judaism. He was director emeritus of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism. and served as senior vice president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the predecessor organization of the Union of Reform Judaism, at the time of his retirement in 1993.

Vorspan was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He fought in the US Navy during World War II.

In 1964, Vorspan was arrested and jailed with a group of Reform rabbis who at the request of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. joined in the civil rights protests in St. Augustine, Florida.

In 1966, his criticism of the war in Vietnam was condemned by Sen. Thomas J. Dodd, a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security, as reflecting "a vociferous minority" rather than mainstream Jewish opinion.

In 1988, at the outbreak of the first Palestinian intifada, he criticized Israeli government policy. In a series of diary entries published in the ''New York Times Magazine'', he wrote, "Whether we accept it or not, every night's television news confirms it: Israelis now seem the oppressors, Palestinians the victims." In response, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Organizations, accused him of "too much public posturing and too little private discourse." Provided by Wikipedia