Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Black-Jewish relationship

Image courtesy of wikipedia

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Day is always received by the Jewish community as a time to engage in service, and a time to reflect on the relationship between our two cultures.  Now, with the soon-to-be-inauguration of the U.S.’s first African-American president, a man highly supported by Jewish voters, Jews are anticipating a new chapter in these relations.

Obama has already pledged to help rejuvenate the Black-Jewish alliance.  Moment Magazine, a D.C.-based Jewish publication, is featuring a photographic essay of this particular and complex relationship.

Dr. King personally had a long and successful history with the Jews.  When he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, Rabbi Jacob Rothschild hosted Georgia’s first interracial banquet in his honor.  Another great Jewish friend of Dr. King’s, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a Holocaust survivor, marched with him in protest on many occasions.

Dr. King also spoke up in defense of the Jewish people as a whole, and was an Israel supporter.  He even went so far as to assert in a 1968 appearance: “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews.  You are talking antisemitism.”  Indeed, Dr. King was surely a thoughtful and compassionate man, who saw the similarities between African American and Jewish quests for self-determination, and did not accept the antisemitic twisting of the principles of Zionism to try and paint Jews and Israel supporters as crusaders.  It is hard not to wish that he were still alive today, for surely his wisdom and temperance could help ease some of the world’s problems, for African Americans, for Jewish Americans, and beyond.

On Friday night, local synagogues like Sixth & I, Adas Israel and Washington Hebrew Congregation held interfaith Shabbat services in honor of MLK.  Obviously, President-elect Obama’s words are being taken to heart in the Washington, D.C. area.  I pray for the continued renewal of good faith between our two strong, American communities.