Rabbi Allen Krause, Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Beth El

Rabbi Emeritus Allen Krause, 72, who served as a leader, builder and spiritual guide of Temple Beth El of South Orange County since July 1984, passed away Saturday, March 3.  Funeral services were held on March 6.
Ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in 1967, Rabbi Krause spent his undergraduate years at the University of California, Los Angeles, and did doctoral work at the University of Chicago and at the University of California, Berkeley.  He also was a recipient of the Daniel Jeremy Silver Fellowship to study at Harvard University.  In 1992, he was awarded a Doctor of Divinity by the HUC-JIR.
Rabbi Krause devoted much of his life to human rights issues.  In the 1970s, he was active in the Save Soviet Jewry movement, which led to his journey to the FSU to visit and bring support to Jewish Refuseniks.  In 1983, he created the Ad Hoc Rabbinic Committee to Rescue Ethiopian Jewry, which mounted a national petition campaign to influence the American government to take action to save this threatened Jewish community.
Here in Orange County, Rabbi Krause was a leader in interfaith activity and the founder of the Religious Diversity Forum.  “Providing a window into the religious beliefs of others was a recurring theme for Krause, who was recognized as a trailblazer in the county’s interfaith movement,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
He was also the founder of the Morasha Day School, which for many years met the needs of the Jewish community in South Orange County.  Rabbi Krause served as president of the Orange County Board of Rabbis and of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis.  He also served on the executive board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and chaired the CCAR Task Force on Rabbi/Cantor Relations.
Rabbi Krause was a resident of Mission Viejo.  He is survived by his wife, Sherri, and two grown children.