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January 12, 2001/Tevet 17, 5761, Vol. 53, No.15
Continue King's call for justice
BARRY COHEN
Community Editor
I was born and raised in Memphis. I knew from childhood Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968. I also knew Rabbi James Wax of Temple Israel, my home congregation, marched side-by-side with King during the sanitation strike just days before that fateful April day.
The divisions between blacks and Jews that grew in King's final years widened after his death. But fortunately the relationship did not end there.
Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, has documented the connection linking blacks and Jews in his book, "Shared Dreams: Martin Luther King Jr. & the Jewish Community" (Jewish Lights Publishing, 1999). He documents the common ground King shared with Jewish leaders, based upon universal ideals, rooted in the Hebrew prophets.
King once wrote, "I draw not from Marxism or any other secular philosophy but from the prophets of Israel; from their passion for justice and cry for righteousness. The ethic of Judaism is integral to my Christian faith."
Rabbi Richard Hirsch echoed King's universalistic call with the words: "In Jewish tradition, salvation for the individual is inseparable from salvation for all mankind, personal ethics are inseparable from social ethics."
Schneier records the constant push-pull between particularistic self-interest and the universalistic command to act for justice.
Readers learn about Stanley Levinson and the Southern Christian Leadership conference; about Rabbi Israel Dresner, freedom rides and sit-ins; about King's call for freedom for Soviet Jews, which splintered his power base in the black community.
But his book is more than a documentation of history; it is a call to action. Schneier shows black-Jewish acts for justice were systemic efforts for human justice, not quick-hit programs addressing symptoms of society's ills.
Thirty-two years after King's death, in Arizona in particular, much remains to be done. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that in 1998, more than 720,000 people - enough to fill Sun Devil Stadium 10 times - lived below the poverty line. According to Central Arizona Shelter Services, there are 10,000-12,000 homeless people in Maricopa County alone.
As tens of thousands of legal immigrants enter our state, every effort must be made to protect their rights and ensure their opportunities to prosper, just as our grandparents and great-grandparents prospered.
Where are today's leaders who reach across socio-economic, political, religious boundaries - challenging an unjust status quo head-on - not because they want to, but because their ideals command them to? Where are the political action and the quest to achieve equal rights for all?
The new Arizona Legislature has convened. Will Jewish groups build coalitions with others to lobby our elected representatives, not for the narrow sake of self-interested justice but for the interest of universal justice?
Martin Luther King Day is not only meant for high profile speeches - it is a call to action. It tunes our Jewish ear to hear the prophetic call for justice, not just for us, but for all of humanity.
On Nov. 20, 1962, King preached at a convention of the United Synagogue of America, "All life is interrelated and we are caught in an inescapable mutuality and a wrong against one is a wrong against all."
Amen, Dr. King. Amen.
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