Rabbi Israel Mowshowitz (1914-1992) was the spiritual leader of Hillcrest Jewish Center in Jamaica for nearly 40 years. He was born in Poland and came to the U.S. in 1929. The son of a rabbi, he studied at Yeshiva University, where he met his wife, the daughter of a rabbi; he later received his doctorate in psychology from Duke University. An active Zionist, Mowshowitz was a delegate to the 22nd World Zionist Congress in Switzerland, its first meeting after WWII. He was also active in the American civil rights movement and joined Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in March 1965. Mowshowitz helped establish Crossroads Africa, a pilot project that was a forerunner of the Peace Corps, and in 1956 was one of first delegations of rabbis to visit the Soviet Union to study conditions of Soviet Jewry. In the 1960s he was president of the New York Board of Rabbis. He also served for many years as a special assistant for community affairs to New York Governor Mario Cuomo.