PARR History & Presidents

“In 1946 the rabbis in the far West felt themselves to be so remote from headquarters that they organized a Western Association of Reform Rabbis.” (From Reform Judaism in America: A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook, edited by Kerry M. Olitzky, Lance Jonathan Sussman, and Malcolm H. Stern, [1993], p. 283) By the time of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, the acronym WARR had fallen out of favor among the members. In 1968, they changed WARR to PARR.


For many years, Rabbi Joe Glaser z”l organized PARR’s annual conferences, and when Glaser became the Executive Vice-President of the CCAR in 1971, Rabbi Morrie Hershman z”l assumed leadership of PARR.


Rabbi Larry Goldmark, then the rabbi of Temple Beth Ohr in La Mirada, California, succeeded Hershman as PARR’s executive vice-president. From 1985 to 2023 – 38 years! – Goldmark nurtured PARR, growing it into an extraordinary rabbinic association. No wonder he came to be called the ‘PARR Czar”!


PAST PRESIDENTS OF PARR


1957: Max Nussbaum

1958: Leonard Beerman

1959: Morton J. Cohn

1960: Meyer Heller

1961: Albert Bilgray

1962: Joseph Gitin

1963: Albert Lewis

1964: Bernard D. Rosenberg

1965: Isaiah Zeldin

1966: Wolli Kaelter

1967: Albert Plotkin

1968: Meyer Simon

1969: Alfred Wolf

1970: David Shor

1971: Sidney Akselrad

1972: Irving Mandel

1973: Emanuel Rose

1974: Joel Goor

1975: Floyd Fierman

1976: David Robins

1977: Haim Asa

1978: Joseph Asher

1979: Hillel Cohn

1980: Herbert Morris 

1981: Martin Ryback

1982: Martin Weiner 

1983: Henri E. Front

1984: Norman D. Hirsh 

1985: Frank Stern

1986: Lester Frazin

1987: Joseph Weizenbaum

1988: Sanford Ragins

1989: Richard Rosenthal

1990: Robert Gan

1991: Ken Weiss

1992: Steven Jacobs

1993: Steven Chester

1994: Allen Krause 

1995: Janet Marder

1996: Martin Lawson 

1997: James Mirel 

1998: James Kaufman 

1999: B. Charles Herring

2000: Patricia Karlin-Neumann 

2001: Michael Berk

2002: Stephen Einstein

2003: Maynard Bell

2004: Alan Henkin

2005: Deborah Prinz 

2006: Bruce Kadden 

2007: Paul Citrin 

2008: Roberto Graetz

2009: Denise Eger

2010: Harry Manhoff

2011: Yoel Kahn 

2012: Sanford Akselrad

2013: Karen Fox

2014: Marvin Schwab 

2015: Bruce Greenbaum

2016: Jason Gwasdoff

2017: Andrea Berlin

2018: Howard Laibson

2019: Cheryl Rosenstein

2020: Evan Goodman

2021: Suzanne Singer

2022: Harry Rosenfeld

2023: Heidi Cohen

Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis is a non-profit organization.

PARR - Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis | 3053 Rancho Vista Blvd. | Suite H-148 | Palmdale, CA  93551

© 2023 PARRabbis.org.  All Right Reserved.

Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software