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Jewish Teachings and the Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Movement was a concrete response to the Jewish commitment to justice and equality. Jewish leaders and laypeople actively joined and supported African-American civil rights activism. These Jewish supporters saw the struggle of African Americans to overcome discrimination and injustice as akin to their own experiences of marginalization. ‘The very center of the Jewish experience is the concept of oppression. We know what it is like to be a minority,’ wrote the rabbi and civil rights advocate Joachim Prinz in 1963 in response to ‘Blow Riots.’ He asserted that Jewish support for civil rights grew out of ‘the enlightening and the redeeming values inherent in our faith traditions.’ The then relatively young rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-72), possibly the best-known Jewish civil rights activist, marched on 9 March 1965 alongside Dr. Martin Luther King and the 3,500 marchers who traveled 54 miles from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama.
His description of what he felt – ‘My legs were praying’ – reflected his belief that the commitment to the struggle for civil rights was a religious imperative as much as a social one. These historical examples of Jewish activism, such as Heschel’s march, should inspire us to continue fighting for social justice.
Jewish participation in the Civil Rights Movement extended beyond individual rabbis supporting civil rights; entire Jewish organizations joined the fight. The Reform Jewish movement (via the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, later renamed Union for Reform Judaism) and other Jewish organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, played a significant role in supporting civil rights legislation and advocacy. The collective efforts of individual Jews and Jewish organizations resulted in widespread support for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, demonstrating the impactful role of the Jewish community in the Civil Rights Movement.
Other Books
Biblical Justice and Racial Dynamics in the African American Church
Jewish Teachings
And The Civil Rights Movement
Jesus Teachings
And The Civil Rights Movement
