Exactly 46 years ago, from January 14th-17th of 1963, a group of Catholic, Protestant and Jewish leaders came together in Chicago for what was called the National Conference on Religion and Race. The idea was to figure out the role of religious leaders in solving the nation’s ongoing racial problems. Among the organizers of this conference were Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. It would be the beginning of a special bond between these two remarkable men. Each of these giants would refer to the other as “a prophet.”
When Rabbi Heschel got up to deliver his address (entitled The Religious Basis of Equality of Opportunity) to the conference, he started off by saying, “Friends, at the first conference on religion and race, the main participants were Pharaoh and Moses [see Exodus 5 in this week’s Torah portion].” In other words, humanity’s capacity to treat other human beings unjustly is nothing new.
Professor Heschel and Dr. King both understood that the story of the Exodus from Egypt was the perfect analogy for the journey of the African-American community. It would require nothing less than divine intervention and extraordinary human leadership to enable a people to make the transition from slavery to freedom. Intuitively, we understand how amazing this kind of transformation is – which helps to explain why over 90% of Jews celebrate a Passover Seder each year some 3,000 years after the Exodus.
This powerful analogy, though, goes even deeper. In the case of our ancestors in Egypt, it took a leader like Moshe to remind the people that they were children of God who deserved a better life. He pushed, prodded and cajoled them out of the land of Egypt in the wilderness. He gave them a purpose (the Torah) and a dream (the Promised Land). After forty years of wandering, his disciple, Joshua, completed the journey into the Land of Canaan. The settling of the land would take many years. It was not an instantaneous conclusion to the transformation, but it was a significant moment nonetheless.
In March, 1968 – just weeks before King’s assassination – Heschel introduced King to the Rabbinical Assembly Convention where he was to deliver an address. Heschel said, “Where in America do we hear a voice like the voice of the prophets of Israel? Martin Luther King is a sign that God has not forsaken the United States of America. God has sent him to us. His presence is the hope of America.” King gave the African-American community a purpose (civil rights) and a dream (full equality). Sadly, that voice was silenced.
However, here we are forty (and a half) years later, and an indirect disciple of Dr. King’s is completing the journey to the Promised Land. It is incredible, really, that next week at this time we will have our first African-American president. Putting all politics aside for a moment, it is incumbent upon all of us to recognize the historicity of this moment. The transformation of the people is not necessarily complete – racism, bigotry and injustice still exist among us – but this is a huge step in the right direction.
The City of Summit will be observing Dr. King’s birthday next Monday (one day before Barack Obama’s historic inauguration). For a complete list of the day’s events, please check out: http://www.ci.summit.nj.us/pdflibrary/2009mklflyer.pdf. Many of these programs are intended for families (as there is no school that day). The day will conclude with a 7:00pm service at Fountain Baptist Church at which I will be delivering the benediction.
RAF.
