Background

Balfour Brickner was born on November 18, 1926, in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. He was the son of Barnett and Rebecca Brickner. His father was himself a prominent figure in Reform Judaism and served for many years as the rabbi of Cleveland's Congregation Anshe Chesed (then known as the Euclid Avenue Temple). Rebecca Brickner (1894-1988) was a close associate of Henrietta Szold, and, like her husband, an active Zionist, as well as a leading Jewish educator. He had a sister, Joy Rabinowitz.

Education

In 1948 Balfour Brickner received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati. In 1952 he obtained a Master of Healthcare Leadership degree from the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion.

Career

In 1952 Balfour Brickner founded the Temple Sinai in Washington, District of Columbia, and was a rabbi there until 1961. From 1961 until 1980, Rabbi Brickner served as co-director of the National Commission of Social Action of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now Union for Reform Judaism), now the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism. During his tenure with the CSA, he founded its Commission on Inter-Religious Affairs and worked to strengthen relations between Christians and Jews. Rabbi Brickner served as senior rabbi at Manhattan’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue from 1980 until 1992, when he then became rabbi emeritus.

From 1955 to 1961 he was a resident lecturer and instructor at American University in Washington, District of Columbia. Brickner’s published writings focus primarily on activist and religious issues, he turned his pen toward the general public when he gathered scraps of what he had jotted down while gardening, expanded on them, and published Finding God in the Garden: Backyard Reflections on Life in 2002. Throughout the book, Brickner uses such gardening experiences as the death of a flower to explore a wide variety of topics, from death and God to nature and sex.

For seven years beginning in the 1960's he was also a host of the syndicated radio program of music and drama "Adventures in Judaism."

Achievements

• Balfour Brickner is best remembered as a leading rabbi in the Reform Judaism movement. In 1969 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Human Letters by Simpson College. He held an honorary doctorate from Tougaloo College.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Finding God in the Garden: Backyard Reflections on Life, Love, and Compost

    (A rabbi whose faith was challenged by the death of his da...)

    2002
  • Searching the Prophets for Values

    (Approaches the study of the Prophets by presenting the va...)

    1981

Politics

Balfour Brickner participated in the Vietnam anti-war movement. He became involved in the Zionist movement while still a teenager, he spoke out against Israeli expansionism and the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Views

Balfour Brickner was an outstanding advocate for the health and rights of women. He co-founded Religious Leaders for a Free Choice, a New York organization in support of abortion rights.

Membership

Balfour Brickner was an active member of the Religious Leaders Task Force.

Personality

After his daughter Elisa’s death in a car accident in 1973, Balfour Brickner experienced a crisis of faith and took up gardening. The hobby eventually renewed his faith.

Interests

• gardening

• Sport & Clubs

  downhill skiing

Connections

On June 20, 1954, Balfour Brickner married Barbara Michaels. Later the couple divorced. On February 20, 1976, he married Doris Gottlieb. This wedlock ended in divorce, too. He had three children from his first marriage: Barnett, Adam, Elisa. He had a life partner, Marcia Soltes.

Father:

Barnett Brickner

Mother:

Rebecca Brickner

ex-spouse:

Barbara Michaels

ex-spouse:

Doris Gottlieb

Son:

Barnett Brickner

Son:

Adam Brickner

Daughter:

Elisa Brickner

She died at age 17 in a 1973 horseback riding accident.

Sister:

Joy Rabinowitz

life partner:

Marcia Soltes

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2011