Arik Ascherman

Arik Ascherman אריק אשרמן‎
Born	Arik Ascherman 1959 Erie, Pennsylvania
Known for	Co-founder, Rabbis for Human Rights

Arik Ascherman (Hebrew: אריק אשרמן‎; born 1959) is an American-born Israeli Reform rabbi, and co- founder of the interfaith human rights organization "Haqel-Jews and Arabs in Defense of Human Rights." For 21 years, starting in 1995, he served as Co-Director (1995-1998), Executive Director (1998-2010), Director of Special Projects (2010-2012) and President and Senior Rabbi (2012-2017) for Rabbis for Human Rights, an Israeli organization. As a human rights activist, he has spearheaded protests to defend Palestinians against Israeli settler violence, worked for socioeconomic justice for Israelis, and advocated on behalf of Israel's Bedouin citizens. He has often put himself at physical risk, and several times stood trial for acts of civil disobedience. He appears in the 2010 documentary Israel vs Israel.

Ascherman grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania and attended Harvard University. Though he planned to attend rabbinical seminary immediately after graduation, he was not accepted, and encouraged to reapply after gaining some real life experience. He joined Interns for Peace, a coexistence project which sent him to the Israeli Arab city of Tamra and the Israeli Jewish city of Kiryat Ata to work from 1981 to 1983. After that, he returned to the United States to complete his rabbinical training. He immigrated to Israel in 1994. He attributes his interest in activism on behalf of universal human rights to the rabbinic concept of tikkun olam (lit. "repairing the world"), referring to universal human rights and social justice.

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