June 14, 2007

Ira Sanders was one of the best-known and respected rabbis in the history of the state. Ordained in 1919, he moved to Little Rock (Pulaski County) in 1926 at age thirty-two to lead the state’s largest Reform Jewish congregation, B’nai Israel. During his approximately thirty-seven years of service, he was recognized as a leader in the fields of social work and civil rights. Rabbi Sanders retired in 1963 and served as rabbi emeritus until his death in 1985. He is the only rabbi interred in Little Rock’s Oakland Jewish Cemetery.