Joachim Prinz

Joachim Prinz (May 10, 1902 – September 30, 1988) was a German-born American rabbi distinguished for his vehement public opposition to the Nazi regime during his Berlin rabbinate and his pivotal role in the American civil rights movement as president of the American Jewish Congress from 1958 to 1966, including a foundational organizational contribution to and speech at the 1963 March on Washington that condemned silence amid injustice. Born in Burkhardsdorf, Upper Silesia, Prinz obtained a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Giessen and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau before serving as rabbi of Berlin's Friedenstempel from 1926 to 1937, where he authored books like Wir Juden warning of Hitler's antisemitic threats and faced repeated arrests by the Gestapo, culminating in his expulsion from Germany.

Immigrating to the United States in 1937, Prinz assumed leadership of Temple B'nai Abraham in Newark, New Jersey, from 1939 to 1977, transforming it into a vibrant congregation while engaging in Zionist advocacy through early affiliations like Blau Weiss and later positions in the World Jewish Congress. His civil rights activism forged alliances, such as with Martin Luther King Jr. starting in 1958, and emphasized historical parallels between Jewish persecution under Nazism and African American oppression, as articulated in his March address: "the most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence."

Joachim Prinz was born on May 10, 1902, in the small village of Burckhardtsdorf in Upper Silesia, then part of the Prussian province of Silesia in the German Empire (now in Poland). His father, Joseph Prinz, owned the town's general store and was described as a stern figure, while his mother, Nani (née Berg), came from a background of established Jewish families. The Prinz family was the sole Jewish household in a community of approximately 900 residents, with both parents descending from prosperous, educated Jewish lineages that had resided in Germany for generations.

As the eldest of four children, Prinz grew up alongside siblings Kurt (born 1904), Hans (1906), and Dorothea (1915). The family's assimilated Jewish environment emphasized secularity during his early years in rural Upper Silesia, near the Polish border, though Prinz later recalled a childhood marked by limited religious observance amid broader cultural integration. In 1910, when Prinz was eight, the family relocated to Oppeln (now Opole), the regional district center, reflecting modest upward mobility tied to his father's mercantile pursuits. This move exposed him to a larger urban setting while maintaining the insular dynamics of minority Jewish life in pre-World War I Prussia.

Prinz commenced his rabbinical studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau in 1921, an institution affiliated with Conservative Judaism that emphasized historical-critical scholarship and traditional observance. The seminary, located in what was then German Silesia, trained rabbis in a liberal-conservative framework, blending modern academic methods with fidelity to halakha. During this period, Prinz also enrolled at the University of Breslau to fulfill academic requirements complementary to his rabbinical education.