Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday is being celebrated today throughout America (with some exceptions, most notably the State of Arizona). Many people recall Dr. King as a remarkable religious leader, an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, a tireless advocate of working people and organized labor, and, of course, this nation’s most passionate and greatest civil rights leader. It was Dr. King’s leadership which ultimately led to the fall of Jim Crow and the beginning of our country’s journey to racial equality. Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” to this day continues to inspire Americans of all races and creeds.
What few of us know is that Martin Luther King was an ardent Zionist and friend to the Jewish community. We’re all familiar with the photo of Dr. King standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the “March on Washington.” My favorite photo is the one where he’s marching with Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel in Selma. It speaks of the powerful partnership and collaboration that existed between these profound religious thinkers and leaders, and symbolically between the black and Jewish communities of their day. Dr. King proudly proclaimed that he had read all of Dr. Heschel’s writings and that he was deeply influenced by them. Dr. Heschel said of his experience working with Dr. King, “When I marched in Selma, my feet were praying.”
Dr. King felt a true kindred spirit within the American Jewish community. He shared a common religious language with our spiritual leaders, most notably with Dr. Heschel, and not only recognized, but supported our community’s Zionist ideals and beliefs. He was an unabashed and ardent supporter of the Jewish people’s right to fulfill our religious and national aspirations in our ancestral and historic homeland – the land of Israel. He put his political capital on the line time and time again in support of the State of Israel’s right to exist. While speaking at Harvard University shortly before his assignation, Dr. King took a hostile question from a student who asked him to address the issue of Zionism. Dr. King responded, “When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews, you are talking anti-Semitism.” Here are just a few of his many supportive statements related to Israel:
“Israel’s right to exist as a state is incontestable. At the same time the great powers have the obligation to recognize that the Arab world is in a state of imposed poverty and backwardness that must threaten peace and harmony.”
“. . . some Arab feudal rulers are no less concerned for oil wealth and neglect the plight of their own peoples. The solution will have to be found in statesmanship by Israel and progressive Arab forces who in concert with the great powers recognize fair and peaceful solutions are the concern of all humanity and must be found.”
“. . . peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.”
Today let’s remember and pay tribute to Dr. King as a champion for civil rights, racial equality and harmony, and a true friend of the Jewish people and the State of Israel!
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