Mazel Tov, America’s first openly gay rabbi retires

Rabbi Allen Bennett. Photo courtesy of Temple Israel.

Rabbi Allen Bennett took the helm of Alameda’s Temple Israel for what he thought was a part-time, eight-month stint. Now he’s retiring after 16 years, and he’ll be feted throughout the month of May starting Sunday with a gala dinner in Oakland to be emceed by KQED’s Michael Krasny.

Bennett came to the Bay Area in 1977 in pursuit of a degree he never ended up getting, instead taking a role in San Francisco’s political scene that included serving as San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk’s rabbi (he officiated over Milk’s service after he was shot and killed by former supervisor Dan White) and gaining fame as the nation’s first openly gay rabbi.

The San Francisco resident built the same political and community connections in Alameda, and he’s served on a laundry list of interfaith and political bodies, though he said he prefers to help out behind the scenes.

“I don’t need my name to be in the news, as long as I can get the message where it belongs,” said Bennett. “If somebody sees me doing something publicly, it’s because someone else asked me to do it.”