Albert Plotkin

Albert Plotkin (1920 – 2010) was an American Reform Rabbi and Jewish spiritual leader and educator in Arizona. He served as rabbi of Temple Beth Israel, the first permanent Jewish congregation in Phoenix for almost forty years. The temple later became the Cutler-Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center, partly named in his honor.

Early life and education Plotkin was born in South Bend, Indiana, to parents who had immigrated from Russia. As a young man he was a talented singer, and before college he was offered a job with a Major Bowes talent show in New York City, but he chose to pursue higher education.

Plotkin first served as an assistant rabbi at Temple De Hirsch in Seattle, where he met Sylvia Pincus, a member of the congregation and his future wife. They married in 1949, He was succeeded by Rabbi Kenneth Segel.

Communal and academic leadership Plotkin held several national offices in Reform Judaism. He served as president of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis from 1967 to 1968, on the board of Hebrew Union College from 1968 to 1970, as secretary of the Central Conference of American Rabbis from 1969 to 1971, and on the board of the United Jewish Appeal of New York from 1974 to 1977. and volunteered for about 25 years as a chaplain at the Phoenix Veterans Hospital. The congregation's synagogue, dedicated in 2004, includes the Rabbi Albert and Sylvia Plotkin Sanctuary, named in their honor.