16 Facts About Marshall Meyer

Rabbi Marshall T Meyer was an American Conservative rabbi who became a recognized international human rights activist while living and working in Argentina from 1958 to 1984, during the period of the "Dirty War" in the 1970s.

Marshall Meyer was elected by president Raul Alfonsin to be one of the members of the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons.

Rabbi Marshall Meyer returned to the United States in 1984 and that year became rabbi of Congregation Bnai Jeshurun in New York City.

Marshall Meyer was called to revive the congregation of the oldest Ashkenazi synagogue in the city.

Marshall Meyer was one of those honored by president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to those who fought for the restoration of democracy in Argentina.

Marshall Theodore Meyer was born in Brooklyn New York in a Jewish family and raised in Norwich, Connecticut.

Marshall Meyer then left and started the Comunidad Bet El in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Marshall Meyer founded the Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano, a rabbinical school in Buenos Aires that soon became the center of Conservative Judaism in Latin America.

Rabbi Marshall Meyer led Comunidad Bet El, a congregation that became a model of many other Conservative synagogues, both in Argentina and Latin America.

Marshall Meyer worked to save the lives of hundreds of people who were being persecuted by the regime.

Marshall Meyer worked with the Israeli government to free the renowned journalist, Jacobo Timerman, who had been persecuted, imprisoned and subjected to extended house arrest.

Timerman wrote that Marshall Meyer had "brought solace to Jewish, Christian and atheist prisoners".

Marshall Meyer additionally founded the Movimiento Judio por los Derechos Humanos, an organization that played a key role in the fight for human rights in Argentina.

In 1983, when democracy was restored in Argentina, the newly elected president, Raul Alfonsin, recognized the work of Rabbi Marshall Meyer by awarding him the highest Argentine decoration, Order of the Liberator General San Martin.

Marshall Meyer married Naomi Marshall Meyer, and they had three children: Anita, Dodi and Gabriel.

Marshall Meyer died of cancer in 1993 and was buried in the cemetery of the synagogue of his home town in Norwich, Connecticut.