Meyer, Marshall T.

Progressive and activist rabbi who expounded a politically engaged Conservative Judaism.

Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer was a progressive and activist rabbi who expounded a politically engaged Conservative Judaism. For Meyer, religion was inseparable from his politics, which spanned the breadth of local, national, and international arenas.

Meyer received his education from Dartmouth and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he came under the influence of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. After being ordained rabbi in 1958, Meyer and his family moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1959, where they were to stay until 1984. During his tenure as rabbi of Comunidad Bet El, Meyer led the reinvigoration and renaissance of Argentina's Jewish community. He also lived and worked through the political upheavals and turmoil of the 1970s and 1980s, openly speaking out against the human rights abuses perpetrated under the rule of the military junta, and visiting and attempting to secure the release of prisoners ("the disappeared") in clandestine jails. Meyer was instrumental in negotiating the release of Jacobo Timerman, who later dedicated his work, Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number to Meyer. After the return of democracy to Argentina in 1983, Argentine President Raul Alfonsin recruited Meyer to serve on CONADEP (National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons), which led a national investigation to establish the extent of the abuses suffered under the military junta.

Meyer returned to the United States in 1984 and took over the helm of congregation B'nai Jeshurun, reviving the decaying New York City synagogue and transforming it into a dynamic center for Judaism in the United States. Meyer advocated for intra-religious dialogue and peace efforts, the plight of marginalized groups within the United States, human rights abuses in Central America (El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala), and for peace and respect for human rights in Israel and Palestine.