SHALOM
Rabbi and US civil rights activist Israel Dresner has died of colon cancer, aged 92. Losing family members to the Holocaust made him acutely aware of the horrors vulnerable populations face, and this experience drove him to fight for both his own and other minorities. The parallels in their struggles and faiths saw Dresner form a close friendship with Martin Luther King Jr., who he first met during one of King’s prison stays. Dresner established himself as the premier rabbi of the 60s US civil rights movement and was a co-organiser of the famed 1963 “I Have a Dream” March on Washington. He was arrested so often that he was dubbed “the most arrested rabbi” and his life was often at risk, but he never wavered from his principles.
Principles he stuck to after the civil rights movement – he was a passionate voice against the war in Vietnam and apartheid, and for the rights of women, LGBTQ people, and the disabled. In addition to staunch support of Israel, he also believed in the protection of Palestinians (which probably is enough to make Israel lobbyists label this devout rabbi an antisemite…). He was a proper mensch until the end whose example is worth remembering. 3 teams seize the Yahoo UK lifeline, including 2021’s silver medalist Haben die Spaten and Reptile’s C team which deliberately takes advantage of this QO source!
Israel Dresner
29 January 1929 – 6 January 2022, aged 92
3 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀💀 5 POINTS)