Alan Sokobin

Rabbi Alan Mayor Sokobin (1926-2020), born in Newark, New Jersey, was a Reform movement rabbi in Toledo, Ohio. of Temple-Congregation Shomer Emunim. At the onset of World War II, at age 15, he left home to join the Navy. He saw action in the European Theater and was on a vessel escorting troop ships for the occupation of Japan at war's end. Through the benefits of the GI Bill, he attended Syracuse University, from which he received a bachelor's degree in history. His father's interest in their Jewish faith and tradition inspired him to pursue rabbinic studies at Hebrew Union College. Ordained in 1955 and served as a student assistant in 1953-54 to Rabbi Leon Feuer in Toledo. In 1972, he returned to Toledo to become co-rabbi, with Rabbi Feuer, of the Collingwood Avenue Temple. He attained a doctor of theology degree from Burton College and served on the board of HUC-JIR. In Toledo he became chairman of the Labor Management Citizens Committee. After his retirement from Shomer Emunim in 1992, he went to law school at the University of Toledo, graduating in 1996. He became a lecturer at the university and spoke on Jewish law and took part in panels on the legal and moral aspects of end-of-life decisions. In retirement as well, he served as the executive director of the Medical Mission Hall of Fame Foundation at UT. In 1999, he received the Rabbi Morton Goldberg Community Service Award, named for the late charter member of L-M-C, which was formed decades earlier to bring labor peace to Toledo. Rabbi Sokobin and former Mayor Harry Kessler led a study committee on improving Toledo Municipal Court, and the the rabbi was on a Toledo Hospital ethics panel.