Rabbi Stanley Kessler receiving his doctoral hood from University of
Hartford President Walter Harrison, Provost Sharon Vasquez and Regent Arnold Greenberg.

WEST HARTFORD – Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler, the founding rabbi of Beth El Temple in West Hartford, was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Hartford at the school’s graduation in May.

In awarding the doctorate, University President Walter Harrison praised Kessler for a lifetime devoted to championing civil rights, as well as other human rights causes.

Kessler was among the Freedom Riders, who fought for civil rights in the segregated South in the early 1960s. In 1963 he was one of 19 rabbis to march with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Birmingham, Ala., and in August of that year he attended the historic March on Washington, D.C. Two years later he joined King in Selma, Ala., in a prelude to the five-day Selma-to-Montgomery march for voting rights.

Kessler also was dedicated to the cause of Soviet Jews who were persecuted and denied permission to emigrate. In 1967, Kessler traveled to the Soviet Union and met with several “Refuseniks” – so named because they were refused permission to leave the country. He participated in the World Conference on Soviet Jewry in Brussels, Belgium, in 1971, and throughout the 1970s he lobbied, demonstrated, and spoke out on behalf of Soviet Jews.

A native of Philadelphia, Pa., Kessler served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II, flying 18 missions over Europe. He was ordained in 1951 at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he also earned a Master of Hebrew Literature and received an honorary Doctor of Divinity. In 1954, Kessler was chosen as the spiritual leader of the then year-old Beth El Temple in West Hartford. He was named rabbi emeritus upon his retirement in 1992.

Kessler has also held high-level positions in several national organizations, including the Rabbinical Assembly and the Synagogue Council of America, and he served as chairman of the National Rabbinic Cabinet of the United Jewish Appeal. He also has served on the boards of numerous state and local organizations.