Education
University of California, Berkeley, B.A., Archaeology of the Near East, 1971
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles, M.A., Hebrew Letters,4 1976
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, Rabbinic Ordination, 1978
Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, D.D., Honoris Causa, 2010
Brief Biography
As co-founder and president of the Los Angeles based Organization for Ethiopian Jewry (OEJ) Rabbi Zucker helped raise thousands of dollars for the rescue and ransom of Jewish Ethiopians, held captive by the communist regime of Ethiopia. He visited the Ethiopian Jewish community in Gondar Province, Ethiopia, in 1986 as part of a humanitarian delegation. In 1990, as international president of the American Rabbinic Network for Ethiopian Jewry, he returned to Addis Ababa to negotiate successfully for the release of 150 prisoners of conscience who were allowed to depart Ethiopia for Israel. He has lobbied in Israel for the funds to promote the successful integration of those Ethiopian Jews who emigrated to Israel. In 1991 and 1992 Rabbi Zucker became active in the fight to secure exit visas for the Jews of Syria, held captive by the oppressive Baathist regime of Damascus. Again, he helped raise thousands of dollars for rescue and ransom. Rabbi Zucker has raised funds for the anti-Slavery movement in the Sudan and spoken forcefully of the crisis in Darfur.
Long interested in the problems of Jewish refugees from revolutionary Iran, Rabbi Zucker became very involved in support of the Iranian opposition movement. In the past several years, he has spoken at Human Rights conferences at the United Nations and lobbied elected officials on behalf of the Iranian resistance movement. In 2005, Rabbi Zucker founded Americans for Democracy in the Middle-East, of which he currently serves as Chairman of the Board. In that capacity, Rabbi Zucker has organized and led briefings at the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. He has been invited to the State Department for meetings on Iran in New York and Washington, DC. Rabbi Zucker was one of the featured speakers at the 2005 National Conference for a Democratic, Secular Iran, held in the historic DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, as well as at the 2006 Iranian National Convention held in Andrew Mellon Hall, also in Washington, DC. He has been invited annually to Paris to attend the International Convocations of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and to address their 2005 and 2006 sessions. Several of his speeches have been broadcast via satellite into Iran.
Rabbi Zucker also served as Adjunct Professor of Hebrew Language at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University in Brookville, NY, for four years. He currently serves a congregation in the greater New York metropolitan area.
Rabbi Zucker’s areas of expertise include: the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS=VEVAK), the Iranian opposition (MEK/NCRI), Iran, Iraq, Israel, Bible (OT) and Biblical history and archaeology, and Ethiopian Jewry.
Additional articles by Rabbi Zucker can be found at International Analyst Network (www.analyst-network.com) and the web site of Americans for Democracy in the Middle-East (www.adme.ws/press).
