Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday provides an important opportunity to consider the ongoing Jewish imperative to pursue justice. As the Torah asserts, "Justice, justice, you shall pursue" (Deuteronomy 16:20). It also provides a moment to reflect on the increasing privilege and status that Jews have attained in the United States, in part as a result of the Civil Rights Movement.

Although there are many Jews of color in the United States who experience race-based discrimination, a majority of American Jews have white skin privilege. Dr. King's birthday should give the Jewish community pause to consider this unearned privilege that many of us embody, and our responsibility to use this privilege to combat racism and discrimination in all forms.

TCI believes that Jews have an important role to play as allies in dismantling racism, and to complement your school?s exploration of Dr. King's legacy, TCI is offering several resources:

Resource 1: The Power of Allied Relationships

An anti-racism "Ally" is a person with white-skin privilege who chooses to take an active and strategic role in confronting racism. 

In thinking about his relationships, African-American educator John Raible compiled the following list of specific behaviors that described white friends and colleagues who stood with him in efforts to dismantle racism:

Click here to download this resource.

Resource 2: Jews in the Civil Rights Movement

One of Dr. King's many achievements was his ability to bring many people, of diverse backgrounds, together in pursuit of equality and an end to discrimination in the United States. In the Jewish community, there were a number of individuals who chose to stand against oppression through their work in the Civil Rights Movement, including:

 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel - King met Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel for the first time at a conference on religion and race in 1963 and became close, with King calling Heschel "my rabbi." They appeared together many times, most famously when Heschel joined the march from Selma to Montgomery. In 1968, King spoke at the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly convention. When he entered the hall, he was greeted by 1,000 rabbis singing "We Shall Overcome" in Hebrew. King was planning to join the Heschel family for a Passover seder that year, but was assassinated before he could. 

Esther Brown - A Jewish woman, Esther Brown, in Topeka, Kan., instigated the lawsuit Brown vs. Board of Education. That 1954 Supreme Court decision put an end to legally mandated racially segregated schools. Though the plaintiff named was a different person with the same surname, a black man named Oliver Brown, the whole effort began because Esther Brown resented the fact that her housekeeper's children were receiving an inferior education. She persevered though harassment and threats, her husband losing his job and a cross being burned on their lawn. Click here to download an extensive list.  

Resource 3: Websites

National Public RadioCommentator Cornel West pays homage to Rabbi Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel, former professor of Jewish ethics and mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Heschel had a major impact on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s thinking on non-violence, race, and human rights. West discusses the friendship and alliance between Heschel and King with NPR's Tavis Smiley. Jewish Women?s ArchiveThe Jewish Women's Archive shares the stories, history, and biographies of Jewish women actively committed to civil rights during a pivotal chapter in the movement's history, 1960-66.  

  Resource 4: Creative Connections

TCI is happy to come to your school to help you present these or other interesting themes or provide you with resources to help you facilitate discussions of your own! We offer a range of workshops and activities on the nexus between Jewish culture and community, and civil rights. Examples include: 

Strategies for Developing Effective Cross-Cultural Communication

Navigating meaningful relationships with individuals and groups across difference requires skill.  This workshop will explore the ways in which historical awareness, cultural competency, listening, strategic inclusion, and other methods for community building can be used to facilitate more meaningful allied relationships. 

Race, Identity, Privilege, and Judaism

This workshop offers a closer look at how Jewish identity fits within the dynamics of contemporary identity politics on educational campuses across North America, and the work to end racism in the United States and greater regions of the world. 

Becoming an Effective Educational Ally to the Work of Dismantling Racism

This workshop provides a forum for educators to critically address and engage in dialogue regarding their development of an anti-racist approach to education and youth empowerment.  Through interactive exercises, role plays and discussion, educators will be given opportunities to investigate their relationship to racism and anti-Semitism.  The workshop will examine how oppression works on personal, community, and institutional levels, the relationship of class and privilege to institutionalized oppression, and fears and barriers that many educational allies struggle with in creating anti-racist educational environments.  This workshop will explore how to empower educators to take action and strategize for change. 

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Jewish Prophetic Tradition

When Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I have a Dream Speech" in Washington, D.C. in 1963, he referenced not only Abraham Lincoln, but the biblical Jewish prophets Amos, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Why did King (and Lincoln) choose to position himself in line with the Jewish prophetic tradition? Explore the connections between these remarkable leaders and their visions for a better world. 

The Book of Esther Revisited: Sexuality, Political Power, and African American Abolitionist Women

African American men, who first gained the pulpit in the late eighteenth century in order to speak out against slavery, were able to turn to a long list of historical male figures after whom to model their speeches. By the nineteenth century, African American women were still denied the right to address public audiences, despite their involvement in the abolitionist movement. When intrepid African American women first took the stage, they had few female role models, and so turned to women?s speeches in the Biblical Book of Esther. In this program we explore the intersection of sexuality, gender, and political power through cross-generational conversations between women in the Book of Esther and nineteenth century abolitionists.  

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