Emmet Allen Frank

Rabbi Emmet Allen Frank (1925-1987), born in New Orleans, was a Reform movement rabbi in the United States. He graduated from the University of Houston and received his ordination from Hebrew Union College's Jewish Institute of Religion. He was an assistant rabbi at his home congregation in Houston before moving to Alexandria in 1954. During his years in Alexandria, Rabbi Frank was an outspoken opponent of racial segregation. He was bitterly criticized by segregationists after a 1958 Yom Kippur homily in which he attacked Virginia's Democratic Senator Harry F. Byrd and other state officials for their role in Virginia's Massive Resistance to court-ordered school desegregation. After leaving Alexandria in 1969, Rabbi Frank served at congregations in Seattle and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, before founding in 1972 his All Peoples Liberal Reform Synagogue in Miami Beach.