A Reform rabbi has resigned the pulpit he held here for 22 years to serve as a civil rights official. Rabbi Martin M, Perley told the members of Congregation B’rith Shalom, in his final sermon, that he had accepted the appointment of executive director of the Louisville and Jefferson County Human Relations Commission because “religion cannot be lived in a vacuum.”
Dr. Perley said he often had been chided for speaking out on civil rights, though his congregation generally had acquiesced in his civil rights activities and adopted a strong statement on human rights in 1964. But his stand against the Vietnam war “angered some of the most influential members of the congregation.” That led him to conclude that he had failed to convey ‘the true meaning of Judaism” as he understands it, the Rabbi said. Dr. Perley was elected head of the Kentucky Board of Rabbis two months ago and was previously the director of the Hillel Foundation at Indiana University. He came to Louisville in 1946 after three and a half years as an Army Chaplain during World War II.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
