Allen A. Secher (“Sech”) began his life on Valentine’s Day in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1935.  Allen was graduated from Butler High School in Butler, PA in 1952 where he knew the golf team was the only place where he could fulfill his dream of being a high school athlete.  Because he was Jewish, he was not welcome at the local country club where the team played.  This was his first human rights experience and was the driving force behind his career as a social justice advocate.

He did his undergraduate work at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, and entered Hebrew Union College to study for the rabbinate.  In 1959 Allen, though it was not required prior to being ordained, went abroad for a year’s study to explore and savor life in the length and breadth of the Holy Land.  He was ordained in 1961 by the Hebrew Union College in New York and received his doctorate in Humane Letters in 1987 in recognition of his “leadership and achievement in building a more humane society”.

Subsequent to his participation as a freedom rider in Dr. Martin Luther King’s non-violent civil right movement during the 1960’s, he became the communications director for the Jewish Federation of Chicago.  He has been a television and movie producer and director, an actor and a radio commentator.  Allen produced children’s shows for broadcast television and for PBS and won seven Emmy’s in the process.

As an interfaith counselor, Rabbi Secher was one of the founders of the Jewish Catholic Dialogue Group, in Chicago, and has been involved in the National Conference of Christians and Jews and with other interfaith groups.  Rabbi Secher has led congregations in New York, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Bozeman MT.  In addition to leading services in Bozeman and Kalispell, as Montana’s only Rabbi, Allen continues to perform life-cycles events in Montana and other places upon request.  In his spare time, he hosts the radio show on KOFI AM, Sunday evening, “Nice and Easy: Secher, Sinatra and Style”, an offshoot of the program “East of Eden” which he hosted on Armed Forces Radio for 30 years.

At age 72 Rabbi Allen Secher’s newest role is as a member of the Montana Human Rights Commission; established to uphold state laws regarding discrimination because of sex, age, race, religion or disability Allen was chosen for this position because, as an ordained rabbi, he has extensive experience in questions of ethics. We are honored to have him as BET HARIM’S congregational rabbi.