Andrew M. Sacks, former rabbi at Congregation Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley and Jewish leader in Israel, passed away in June at the age of 70, writes Gary Miles for The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

Sacks was known as a fierce and tireless activist for religious pluaralism, social justice, and environmental responsbility. 

He spent three decades in Jerusalem, where he defended the rights of non-Orthodox Jews, women, the LGBTQ community, and others he found to be oppressed.

Sacks also led the Religious Affairs Bureau of the Masorti Movement, spent decades as Israel’s only non-Orthodox mohel, and encouraged and oversaw conversion to Judaism in Israel, the United States, and various other countries throughout the world.

“One of the most joyful parts of rabbinic work is welcoming Jews by choice into the community,” he said in 2019 on the Masorti Foundation website.

Sacks compared the Masorti Movement in Isreal to the American civil rights movement of the 1960s. 

His vision was clear.

“The next set of years, it becomes our obligation to bring Jewish values to the state of Israel,” Sacks said in 2015.

Former colleagues praised Sacks for his passion for action and his lasting legacy, calling him “a true hero to so many of us.”

Read more about Rabbi Andrew Sacks and his lasting legacy in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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