Albert Plotkin (1920 – 2010), born in South Bend, Indiana, was a Reform movement rabbi in the United States, serving Temple Beth Israel (Phoenix, Arizona). He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1942 and, in 1948, was ordained at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. After pulpits in Spokane and Seattle, Washington, in 1955 he came to Temple Beth Israel in Phoenix, the first permanent Jewish congregation there since the early 1900s. He championed civil rights, supported the arts, and played a key role in establishing the Jewish Studies Program at Arizona State University (and taught there). For 25 years he volunteered as a chaplain at Phoenix Veterans Hospital. In 1972, the National Conference of Christians and Jews honored him with the National Award for Brotherhood. Following his retirement in 1992, Rabbi Plotkin pursued a professional singing career with the Arizona Opera.