EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
Legacy,Worth Remembering
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live
out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal.'''
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I
sign that God has not forsaken the United States of
America. God has sent him to us. His presence is the hope
of America. His mission is sacred, his leadership of
supreme importance to every one of us," Rabbi Heschel
said of his dear friend that March day in 1968, according
to the poster.
Program co-keynoter Rabbi David Nelson of
Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak Park studied under
Rabbi Heschel, who died at age 65 in 1972.
Stressing his mentor's devotion to tikkun olam, Rabbi
Nelson urged us to help repair the world, to "make it a
more perfect world in which God's presence will enter and
change and our lives." He challenged us to fulfill Dr.
King's dreams, saying, "There is plenty of work to do."
The Rev. Nicholas Hood III of Plymouth United Church
of Christ in Detroit — who met Rabbi Nelson on a Jewish
Community Council interfaith clergy trip to Senegal and
Israel last March — asked each of us tb project our legacy.
"Will your legacy be like Dr. King — a person who
stands up to those things that you think are right, who
challenges those things you think are wrong? Will your
legacy be a legacy of love, which transcends race, religion,
culture and class?"
Humbling us, he asked: "Will there be anybody who will
want to pause and remember your legacy as a human
being, as a person who made a difference in this
world?"
n the lobby of the Max M. Fisher Federation
Building, just before a program remembering Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr., I was asked to read from the
slain civil rights leader's "I Have a Dream" speech.
Delighted to be asked, I said yes. Michelle Passon, repre-
senting Women's American ORT-Michigan Region on the
program's planning committee, handed me
a card with the above quotation. It is from
Dr. King's address at the March on
Washington for Jobs and Freedom, held
Aug. 28, 1963.
Thirty-nine years later, the speech still
resonates: "When we let freedom ring,
when we let it ring from every village and
every hamlet, from every state and every
ROBERT A. city, we will be able to speed up that day
when all of God's children — black men
SKLAR
and white men, Jews and gentiles,
Editor
Protestants and Catholics — will be able
to join hands and sing, in the words of the
old Negro spiritual, Tree at last! Free at last! Thank
God Almighty, we are free at last!'"
Dr. King, who became an American hero before
his 1968 murder at age 39, would have turned 74
Moving Forward
two days before the Jan. 17 remembrance program
at the central offices of Detroit Jewry in
Later, I thought about what we're doing locally to
build bonds between Jews and blacks. More of us
Bloomfield Township. About 80 people attended.
live near, or work with, one another. Some Jews
Embracing nonviolent civil protest, Dr. King
have moved back to the central city; others never
inspired blacks and whites alike until silenced by
Agiik
left it in the wake of the 1967 riots. A key Detroit
an assassin's bullet in April 1968 as he stood on the
Rabbi N elson
job placement and training agency, JVS, has Jewish
balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where
roots. Two synagogues operate in the city.
he had come to support the sanitation workers.
Suburban synagogues continue to nurture partner-
Given the social ferment at the time in the South,
America was lucky this child of a Southern Baptist minister ships with black urban churches.
Jews lead ecumenical events, social action projects and
survived in public life for 15 years, going back to the 1955
diversity walks. They give to black causes and tutor in
Montgomery bus boycott, a seminal event in civil rights
history.
black schools. They're major players in Detroit's politics,
commerce, redevelopment and cultural arts.
At the very least, Detroit Jewry echoes Dr. King's
Unlikely Duo
belief that human destiny is intertwined — that
As we gathered to remember Dr. King at the Jewish
"we cannot walk alone." Have we done enough?
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit-hosted pro-
Hardly, given that we live in the nation's most seg-
gram, I noticed on the Butzel Conference Suite
regated metropolitan region, especially our schools.
windowsill some posters recounting his life.
Still, I'm uplifted to see Jews strike up business
The one about the Selma-to-Montgomery march
partnerships and personal friendships with blacks. I
for voting rights on March 28, 1968, caught my
pray for stronger ties between two groups linked
eye. In a famous picture, Rabbi Abraham Joshua
Rev. Hoo d
90 years ago when blacks first followed as Jews
Heschel, a giant of American Jewry, is marching
moved their neighborhoods northwesterly through
defiantly with Dr. King. The image is an upbeat
the region. More of us live side by side, but as a
reminder of the heyday of black-Jewish understanding.
rule, we don't really know each other. We're not learning
"I felt my legs were praying," said Rabbi Heschel, the
together, socializing, commiserating with one another or
first Jew to march side by side with a black man trying
sharing the joy of a simchah.
nobly to topple segregation. The rabbi taught at the
Can we remove this wall of indifference?
Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary of
To start, we could heed Marion Freedman of West
America in New York City.
Bloomfield. Diring closing comment at last week's pro-
With long white hair and a flowing beard, Rabbi
gram, she resolved: "We need to begin, or continue, to
Heschel resembled a biblical prophet; a fiery eloquence
communicate with each other, talk to each other and,
made Dr. King sound like one.
above all, listen to each other. If we do that, we have a
"Where in America today do we hear a voice like the
decent shot at gaining the understanding, acceptance and
voice of the prophets of Israel? Martin Luther King Jr. is a
equality that was Dr. King's dream." ❑
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