Leadership

Rabbi Robert J. Marx - Founder

Rabbi Marx is the founder and a past president of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, where he continues to be an active board member, leader and mentor. He is the Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Hakafa in Glencoe, which he founded in 1983. In the 1960s, Rabbi Marx marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. in Alabama, fought for civil rights in Chicago and other cities, and organized a mission to Washington DC during the six-day war. Since then, he has continued his tireless pursuit of justice by helping to found Interfaith Worker Justice (formerly the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice) where he is a board member and past president and by serving as a leader of many other organizations including the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities and the Black-Jewish dialogue. Rabbi Marx was ordained at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and received a PhD in philosophy from Yale University.

In 1968, Rabbi Marx authored The People In Between, a discussion of the interstitial role in which Jews have historically been cast. His thesis is that "An ability to understand this role could lead to the creation of real power-- power that is prophetic and just, that saves the oppressed and gives mission and purpose to Jewish existence." Click here to download The People In Between.

 *Past President