Shared Dreams

Marc Shneier

Description

Many people are familiar with the story of Jewish support for the American civil rights movement, but this history has another side—
one that has not been fully told until now.

“Outlines a compelling image of relations between the two communities…. In Shared Dreams, Rabbi Schneier reiterates our commonality, as upheld by Martin Luther King, Jr., and fuels the reader to continue to work for the advancement of race relations among all God’s children.”
—from the Preface by Martin Luther King III

Shared Dreams brings to life the impressive, surprising, and long-neglected history of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s efforts in support of the Jewish community. This is a story that sheds new light on the commitment and the relationship between the Jewish and African-American communities as they have struggled together to fight for justice and civil rights in our nation, and our lives.

Sujets

• Civil Rights
• Philosophie et théologie
• Marc Schneier
• Martin Luther King III
• African-American history
• Suffix (name)
• African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955?1968)
• Civil and political rights
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Judaism
• Religion
• JR
• Martin Luther King

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 27 juin 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580236492
• Langue: English

Extrait

Shared Dreams
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Jewish Community

R ABBI M ARC S CHNEIER
Preface by Martin Luther King III
To my angel, Tobi, and my extraordinary son, Brendan
Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface by Martin Luther King III
Introduction
1 The New Moses
2 Cease to Do Evil, Learn to Do Good : Jewish Tradition and Social Justice
3 The Updated Covenant
4 Out of Zion Shall Go Forth the Law : King and the Jews
5 Montgomery: The Journey Begins
6 A Refugee from the Commercial Jungle : Stanley Levison
7 Moses Returns to Atlanta
8 Only Rabble-Rousers Recite Psalms with Negroes
9 Raging Bull: Hell in Birmingham
10 All Eyes on Washington
11 Freedom Summer, 1964
12 Our Marching Steps Will Thunder: We Survive!
13 A Poisoned Fountain: St. Augustine
14 A Kindred Spirit: Abraham Joshua Heschel
15 Selma: The Ultimate Freedom March
16 Afrocentrists New Target: Israel
17 Friendship Lost
18 From One Battle to Another
19 End of the Dream: Memphis
Epilogue
Notes
Index

About the Author
Copyright
Also Available
About Jewish Lights
Acknowledgments
P ermit me to thank the following for their friendship and wise counsel: Elan Steinberg, Israel Singer, Kweisi Mfume, Hugh Price, S. Daniel Abraham, Congressman Charles Rangel and Ken Sunshine. I am grateful to my beloved friend Martin Luther King III for his impassioned preface. My deepest appreciation to him and to Gwen Blount for her assistance.
I must remember my co-founder of The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, a true visionary in the field of racial harmony, the late Joseph Papp. His wife, Gail, continues to devote her time, energy and resources to our landmark work. I salute my fellow officers at The Foundation: Darwin Davis, Stephanie Shnay, Edward Yardeni, and Robert Cyruli for their dedication and deep commitment to the furthering of Black/Jewish relations. To Lawrence Kopp, Executive Director, and Meredith Flug, Deputy Executive Director, my gratitude for their honest professional advice, useful comments, and editorial help.
The following must be singled out for their support and assistance in making this book a reality: my research editor, Phil Sieradski, whose extensive interviews enabled me to make this story a reality, my editor, Arthur Magida, whose suggestions for organizing and presenting the material steered the book to completion, Robert Youdelman and Pam Bernstein, who helped me navigate the world of publishing, my friends at Jewish Lights Publishing, Stuart Matlins and Sandra Korinchak, for their conviction, patience, and deeply held commitment to this project, and Amy Rubin, Michael Gelb and Gene Rubin, who contributed invaluable research.
Research for this book would not have been possible without the support of the Samuel Bronfman Foundation. My thanks for their generosity, which has brought to life this previously untold story of mutual support and cooperation.
Glenn Dorskind generously read the manuscript and shared his comments with me. Additional help came from my friends and colleagues, Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum and Rabbi Gilbert S. Rosenthal.
As always, my beloved congregation, The Hampton Synagogue, has been a constant source of strength and encouragement to my vision of tolerance, human dignity and human rights. I must single out the synagogue s officers: Michael Weisbrod, Martin Berman, Seymour Siegel, and Gerald Rausnitz, for their love and support.
Lastly and most importantly, my heart goes out to my beloved wife, Toby, my light and inspiration, who shares in my dreams. May our children, Sloane and Brendan, grow up to live in a world free of discrimination and bigotry.
Preface
I will never forget my first introduction to the work of Rabbi Marc Schneier and the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding. I had just been named the fourth president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization co-founded by my father, Martin Luther King, Jr. One of the first letters of congratulations was from Rabbi Schneier. It included an invitation to speak on the state of Black/Jewish relations in the United States at Yeshiva University.
A friendship grew from that invitation. As I interacted more with Rabbi Schneier and learned more about the work of the Foundation, I learned that Rabbi Schneier had a burning desire to advance relations between our respective races. Moreover, as a man of God, he was convinced that while we may have respective differences in our communities, we had much more in common as part of the brotherhood of man.
My discussions with my friend, Rabbi Schneier, often centered around the American civil rights movement and the work of my father. I was impressed that Marc not only knew intimately the history of my father s work with the civil rights movement, he was also well-versed in the history of my father s connections to the Jewish community. In time, he revealed that he had devoted much time and energy to research of the two.
Shared Dreams is the culmination of that effort. While much has been written about the work of my father, Rabbi Schneier has gone to great lengths to compile the complex story of the cooperation, and sometimes angst, between blacks and Jews during the civil rights movement in the context of Martin Luther King, Jr. s life. From the account of his friendship with men like the incomparable Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and his advisers, Stanley Levison and Harry Wachtel, to anti-Semitic sentiments within the movement itself, Rabbi Schneier examines different aspects of the relation between my father and the Jewish community. As such, he outlines a compelling image of relations between the two communities.
The history of Americans of African descent and Jewish descent is a story of two groups of people who have suffered uncommon persecution but who have persevered with uncommon faith. This is our common ground. We share the dream of a beloved community where one can live without the threat of racism, poverty, or violence. We share the dream of a beloved community where the worst of the human spirit is defeated by our best. In Shared Dreams , Rabbi Schneier reiterates our commonality, as upheld by Martin Luther King, Jr., and fuels the reader to continue to work for the advancement of race relations among all God s children.
-M ARTIN L UTHER K ING III
Introduction
M uch has been written about that time when a movement came into being whose goal was to free African Americans from discrimination and racism. Though blacks were the prime architects of this movement that was founded on religion and faith and hope, the battle for freedom would have taken longer-and been even more torturous-if not for the participation of people who were not blacks and who put their own lives on the line to help African Americans. Only after middle-class whites, especially ministers, priests, and rabbis, began participating in civil rights demonstrations did the movement gain the attention that was needed to pass the landmark civil rights legislation of 1964 and 1965.
No black figure of the period received as much allegiance from people sympathetic to civil rights as did Martin Luther King, Jr. And no segment of the white community provided as much-and as consistent-support for King as did the Jewish community. Jewish support for King and for civil rights is fairly widely known. It is a story worth telling fully, and that is done here in relation to Dr. King and his efforts. But little has been told about King s support for issues that almost exclusively concerned the Jewish community, such as easing discrimination against Jews in the Soviet Union and assuring the safety and security of the State of Israel. He also spoke out against anti-Semitism in the United States, especially when that virus erupted among blacks. King did not often have the opportunity to express his ongoing support of the Jewish community because he was almost wholly consumed-as he should have been-with the fight for blacks to secure full human rights in this country. But the fact that there was, even sporadically, a two-way street between King and the Jewish community is both impressive and surprising. King did what he could for the Jewish people within the limits of his role as an advocate for his own people, and within the limits of his own political and moral power. He understood that a people who fought for their rights were only as honorable as was their concern for the rights of all people.
Jews should be proud of their participation in the civil rights struggle. They should hold that up as an inspiration to all generations: it is emblematic of what the sages call tikkun olam , the mandate for Jews to repair the world, to make it whole and move it closer to a messianic age of truth and compassion. We hope that the story told here will encourage Jewish people and people of all faiths in such efforts in the future.
But King s reciprocation shows his full humanity and also inspires us, especially since, given the historical circumstances of the time and the discrepancies in power between the black and Jewish communities, it was hardly surprising that Jews assistance to blacks was greater than what blacks were doing for Jews. And also since, by reciprocating, he risked opprobrium from fellow blacks, particularly as Black Power, with its shadings of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, was on the upswing. His empathy and outspokenness show the bravery-and the firmness-of his conscience, and the reality of his dream. This dream was as rooted in the Jewish idea of tikkun olam as it was in the Baptist vineyards where King preached and prayed, and where he did his work for God in the terrible, yet glorious battlefields of Selma and Birmingham. And most sadly, of course, in Memphis, after which it was up to the world to repair itself for the terrible deed done against this man who had struggled so hard, as had the prophet Amos (5:24), for justice to roll down like waters, and righteousn