Bernard Cantor (March 30, 1892 – July 5, 1920) was an American-born, Reform rabbi with experience in social work who volunteered to work as an emissary for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (also known as the Joint or the JDC) in Poland and Ukraine (then Galicia) following World War I and the Russian Revolution, providing relief to Jewish communities there, until he was murdered along with his colleague, Dr. Israel Friedlander, while on a philanthropic mission.

At a service in his honor at the Free Synagogue on the eve of his departure, Cantor said, "In consonance with our traditions, we again go forth to serve our suffering people, and gladly do I go, and I rejoice at the opportunity.

Disregarding warnings of the danger of pogroms and civil unrest in the area, Cantor and Friedlaender, together with a leader of the Tarnopol Jewish community named Grossman, set out early on July 5, 1920 to return to Lemberg.

On the highway leading from Kamenets-Podolsky at the entrance to Yarmolintsy [in the Ukraine],[6] in the vicinity of the shtetl of Sokolovka, their car was attacked by members of a Red Army cavalry unit that had broken through a section of the frontline.

"[2] Tributes were offered by members of communities all over the world, including from Shanghai, China, where Cantor and Friedlander were eulogized as "true martyrs... to the Jewish cause".

The Joint's initial intention had been to return the bodies to the United States for burial but due to the chaotic conditions in the area at that time, this was deemed impossible.

[10] Since Bernard Cantor, unlike his colleague and fellow victim Israel Friedlaender, was unmarried and had no offspring, there was no one to carry on his name, as is the Jewish custom.