Ben-Zion Bokser (July 4, 1907 – January 30, 1984) was a major Conservative rabbi in the United States. Biography Bokser was born in Liuboml, then a part of Poland, and emigrated to the United States at the age of 13 in 1920. He attended City College of New York (BA, 1928) and Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Theological Seminary, followed by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (ordained, 1931) and Columbia University (PhD, 1935). He taught for many years as an adjunct professor of political science, Queens College, City University of New York. His first pulpit was Congregation Beth Israel in Vancouver. He served as the rabbi of Forest Hills Jewish Center in Queens, New York, starting in 1933 and remained in that position for the balance of his career, more than fifty years. He served a two-year period as a United States Army chaplain during World War Two, stationed at Camp Miles Standish in Massachusetts. During World War Two, he organized aid for Jewish soldiers. Bokser was an advocate of social justice, taking a position in favor of the construction of a housing project for the poor in the middle class community of Forest Hills. During this episode, called the Forest Hills housing controversy 1966-1972, he was in constant contact with many leading politicians and building developers. He fought against the death penalty in New York state. He served as a program editor for the Eternal Light, the Jewish Theological Seminary's radio program; a lecturer on homiletics; and a participant in the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion and the Institute for Religious and Social Studies, both seminary-run programs. Bokser heard Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook speak in New York in 1924 and became an avid student and great proponent of his teachings. He served as chair of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly from 1959–1960, 1963–1965, and 1980-1984. Bokser and his wife had two children. His son was the scholar of Rabbinic Judaism, Baruch Bokser. His daughter Miriam Bokser Caravella wrote The Holy Name: Mysticism in Judaism on the universal aspects of Jewish mysticism and similarities with the mysticism of other religions. Thought He stressed the rabbinic sages and the Talmud as the source of Judaism. "This is not an uncommon impression and one finds it sometimes among Jews as well as Christians - that Judaism is the religion of the Hebrew Bible. It is, of