Editor's Letter

The Vigor Of Who We Are

Penina Kroll, 20,

of Oak Park danc-
ing at "A Fair to
Remember" with

Dani Kippurof, 22,

and Charlie Ruda,
23, both from
Colorado

was matched with JARC

resident Mary Roy five

years ago, she hoped she

would find a meaningful

volunteer commitment.

She never dreamed she

would find a life-long

friend. And now, the

addition of Julie's new baby

brings a special shine to

"Aunt Mary's" eyes.

I

t was Aug. 28, 1963, a sticky summer day. The crowd of
250,000 at the historic civil rights march on Washington
was hot, weary and restless. But the charismatic key-
noter, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., had yet to speak.
There were scattered sighs when Rabbi Joachim Prinz, the
American Jewish Congress president, began to speak from
the Lincoln Memorial's granite steps. The wait for Dr. King
— and his message of freedom, equality, justice and nonvio-
lent civil protest — seemed interminable.
The 61-year-old rabbi was spiritual leader
of Temple B'nai Abraham in Newark, N.J.,
and a civil rights activist. After 11 years as
the leader of Berlin's Jews, he was
exiled from his native Germany
in 1937 for speaking out against
Nazism. He drew Hitler's wrath
for trying to keep the tide of
Rev. King
hate from obliterating European
Jewry.
Prinz spoke for just two min-
utes at the March on Washington
for Jobs and Freedom; still, his
words lingered.
"As Americans, we share the
profound concern of millions
of people about the shame and disgrace
of inequality and injustice, which makes
Rabbi Prinz
a mockery of the great American idea;' he
said.
"As Jews, we bring to this great demonstration, in which
thousands of us proudly participate, a two-fold experience
— one of the spirit and one of our history."
Prinz talked about how God created man as a universal
neighbor. He defined neighbor as "our collective responsibility
for the preservation of man's dignity and integrity"
King spoke next. Midway through prepared remarks, he
chucked them so he could share his unflappable dream: for free-
dom to ring from every nook and corner of this great nation.

"And when this happens:' he said, "we will be able to speed
up that day when all God's children, black men and white men,
Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join
hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, `Free at
last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"'
The march paved the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Jewish - Black Bonds
Dr. King — the son of a Southern Baptist minister and a
quintessential American hero — was just 39 when he was
gunned down in Memphis, where he had come to support the
sanitation workers. His 1968 murder came 13 years after he
rose to prominence in the Montgomery bus boy-
cott, a seminal event in civil rights history.
More the originator of ideas, King accepted the
American Jewish Committee's Liberties Medallion
in 1965 by quoting Rabbi Prinz. "The most urgent
— the most disgraceful, the most shameful and
the most tragic — problem:' King said, "is silence
not "bigotry and hatred.'"
This week, 45 years to the day after the
Washington march, is a timely opportunity to
honor the progress made in Metro Detroit to bol-
ster bridges of black-Jewish understanding.
One reinforcement of that progress was the
Detroit black community's decided rejection of an Ann Arbor-
based left wing group's call to march in protest on Aug. 21
outside the Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit during
the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's "A Fair To
Remember" celebrating Israel's 60 years as a modern Jewish
state. Few blacks were among the 50 anti-Zionist protestors
who believe Israel not only has been the aggressor and villain
in its relentless struggle with Arab armies and Palestinian
terrorists, but also the instigator of Arab flight from Palestine
during Israel's 1948 War of Independence.

Editor's Letter on page A6

JARC volunteers

do more 'than
give thee and talent.
They form
relationships
that can change the
lives of everyone
involved in
remarkable ways.

•

Helping People with Disabilities
Be Included in Their Community
— All Through Their Lives —

To find out more about
volunteer opportunities,
please contact Alissa Pianin

248.538.6610 x349

alissapianin@jarc.org

1361060

August 28 • 2008

A5