Rabbi Abie has advocated his entire life on behalf of social justice. As a college student, he talked his way into John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s bedroom during their 1969 “Love In” to engage them in the rescue of Jews in the Soviet Union. In 2009, he traveled to Darfur to share a message of hope, which his parents, who survived the Holocaust, instilled in him as a child. In 2010, he traveled to Uganda and Kenya to work with refugees, and then to Ethiopia in 2012. In the fall of 2012, he logged 24,734 miles as the keynote lecturer for the Cameroon Muslim Student Union and the Museum of Dialogue of Cultures in Poland. He has lectured throughout the United States and Canada, the Vatican and South Korea.

Rabbi Abie demonstrates the beauty in diversity and its role in healing the world. Besides his role as an educator and an accomplished lecturer and raconteur, he has traveled the world while raising thousands of dollars to bring medicine to those deeply in need and touching the lives of countless individuals who went on to make incredible impact through their own works. In moving people from tolerance to celebration, Rabbi Abie charts a course for meaningfulness in life, in employment, and in human relationships.

Rabbi Abie established the Center for Interfaith Community Engagement at Xavier University in Cincinnati in 2008. He also served as Visiting Associate Professor in Theology. Rabbi Abie retired from Xavier in 2018. Prior to his Xavier apppointment, Rabbi Abie was Executive Director of the Hillel Center at the University of Cincinnati for three decades. For eight years, he was an NPR Morning Edition commentator, ending his Friday broadcasts with his signature tagline, “I’m Rabbi Abie Ingber, and now you know what I think.” For more than two decades he was Instructor in Homiletics at Hebrew Union College (Cincinnati). For three years, Rabbi Abie served as Rabbi-in-Residence for the (Episcopal) Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati.

Rabbi Abie co-created the 2005 award-winning exhibit, “A Blessing to One Another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People,” which toured 18 cities in the United States and closed at the Vatican in the summer of 2015. More than one million people viewed the exhibit. In 2022, The Cincinnati Opera produced his “Cabaret of Hope: Warsaw 1941.”

Rabbi Abie’s work at Xavier University, a Jesuit institution, encouraged all students and staff to serve together for Tikkun Olam - healing the world. His years at Xavier have seen him take over 100 pre-med students to serve among the poor in Guatemala. When a pastor in Florida threatened to burn the Koran, he encouraged students of all faiths to read the Koran aloud in the center of campus. He said, “At Xavier, we do not burn holy books, we read them.” Rabbi Abie taught courses in Hebrew Scriptures, African American Interpretation of the Bible, and The Holocaust.

Rabbi Abie has two doctorates, honoris causa, from Hebrew Union College - Doctor of Divinity; and from Roosevelt University – Doctor of Social Justice.

He serves on numerous Boards and Advisory Councils including Yahad in Unum Mid-America, International Human Rights Arts Movement, Closing the Health Gap, CET/Think TV and Art Beyond Boundaries.

Rabbi Abie is a metaphysical bridge-builder. Throughout his career he has linked people from diverse communities together, and good people together with opportunities for good deeds. Rabbi Abie embraces change and reinvention, and believes that each person can achieve endless possibilities in life, in employment and in human relationships. Rabbi Abie is a highly effective speaker offering an inspired prophetic voice for social justice.

Rabbi Abie is the son of two Holocaust Survivors. His parents met at a Displaced Persons Refugee Camp after the war. He has raised his four daughters to emulate their grandparents’ values of love, compassion and justice.