This is Martin Luther King, jr, weekend. It is also the weekend we mark the birthday and the yahrzeit of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Rabbi Heschel was introduced to King by my own rabbi, Rabbi Everett Gendler, of blessed memory.
“Rabbi Gendler met Dr. King for the first time on August 27, 1962, in Albany, GA. This photo was taken during a planning meeting for the vigil that would take place the following day. Dr. King asked this group of inter-faith, inter-racial clergy if they would participate in a non-violent prayer vigil, knowing that they may be arrested (it turned out that they were). All hands went up. It’s easy to think back on the civil rights movement and assume that we would all stand up to bigotry, inequality, and racism – potentially endangering our bodies, our careers, and our families all in the name of justice. But it isn’t now, and it wasn’t then.” said Gendler’s niece Emily.
Perhaps the more famous photo is of King and Heschel and Gendler at Arlington National Cemetery in 1968.
Tonight I want to share with you again, because it bears repeating, part of a speech that Heschel gave 60 years ago tomorrow, January 14, 1963 at a conference on Race and Religion, right here in Chicago.
60 years ago.
On January 14, 1963, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel gave the speech “Religion and Race,” at a conference of the same name that assembled in Chicago, Illinois. There he met Dr. Martin Luther King and the two became friends. Rabbi Heschel marched with Dr. King at Selma, Alabama in 1965. The speech Rabbi Heschel gave at the 1963 conference appears below.
“At the first conference on religion and race, the main participants were Pharaoh and Moses. Moses’ words were: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me.” While Pharaoh retorted: “Who is the Lord, that I should heed this voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover I will not let Israel go.”
The outcome of that summit meeting has not come to an end. Pharaoh is not ready to capitulate. The exodus began, but is far from having been completed. In fact, it was easier for the children of Israel to cross the Red Sea than for a Negro to cross certain university campuses.
Let us dodge no issues. Let us yield no inch to bigotry, let us make no compromise with callousness.
In the words of William Lloyd Garrison, “I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject [slavery] I do not wish to think, to speak, or to write with moderation. I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard.”
Religion and race. How can the two be uttered together? To act in the spirit of religion is to unite what lies apart, to remember that humanity as a whole is God’s beloved child. To act in the spirit of race is to sunder, to slash, to dismember the flesh of living humanity. Is this the way to honor a father: to torture his child? How can we hear the word “race” and feel no self reproach?
Race as a normative legal or political concept is capable of expanding to formidable dimensions. A mere thought, it extends to become a way of thinking, a highway of insolence, as well as a standard of values, overriding truth, justice, beauty. As a standard of values and behavior, race operates as a comprehensive doctrine, as racism. And racism is worse than idolatry. Racism is satanism, unmitigated evil.
Few of us seem to realize how insidious, how radical, how universal an evil racism is. Few of us realize that racism is man’s gravest threat to man, the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason, the maximum of cruelty for a minimum of thinking.
Perhaps this Conference should have been called “Religion or Race.” You cannot worship God and at the same time look at man as if he were a horse.”
The essay continues and you can read the full text here: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1963-rabbi-abraham-joshua-heschel-religion-and-race/
However, the work is still not done. Still. Almost since being in Elgin, I have served in various capacities through the city and the Coalition of Elgin Religious Leaders on the topic of Policing and Racism. Before Ferguson, that committee was already meeting. After Ferguson I was asked to attend a silent vigil of religious leaders in Ferguson. I was already a police chaplain but not very active. I served at the request of the mayor who felt that my background in domestic violence counseling might be helpful. Before I went to Ferguson, I called the mayor and the then police chief. I thought maybe Elgin had a better model of poicing.I went with their blessing. Rabbi Maralee Gordon and I rode together and spent time with my good friend Father Jack Lau who was then stationed at a noviate near Ferguson on the Illinois side of the river. It was, as he said, his WalMart that got torched during some of the demonstrations. We went. We sang Wade into the Water for four hours, the same length of time that Michael Brown lay in the street. We were soaked. I lost a pair of shoes that day in the unrelenting rain. Michael Brown has lost his life. Let’s pause for a moment.
Jack and Simon went on to attend the 50th anniversary of the march across the Petis Bridge in Selma. Selma—let’s pause for a moment since just experienced a tremendous tornado.
Then the unthinkable happened here. A young black woman was shot to death on the Tollway by a white EPD lieutenant. It seemed to fit the national narrative. I’ve watched that film more times than any one should. I still can’t see the second knife, even when it has been circled in red for me. I have heard all the explanations and justifications. I am sure that there are people in this room and on Zoom who don’t agree with my analysis. I am still not sure that it does fit the national narrative. After the car was set on fire, I am not sure that any of us could possibly know what we would have done. With all the best training in the world.
This is what I do know. Systemic racism is real. It exists. It is insidious. And yes, it exists in Elgin. At the EPD and even right here at CKI.
It takes as Heschel suggested 60 years ago, and 3500 years ago. Work. Lots of it. Tomorrow morning will be the 38th annual Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfast. I won’t be there. I will be right here leading services. There are other ways that CKI people can participate in the activities this weekend. Donate to the annual Martin Luther King Food drive. As we know for every dollar donated, Food for Greater Elgin can purchase eight dollars of food. Attend the premier of the documentary, Invented Before You Were Born, about a plantation family, the Bibbs of Kentucky, that freed their slaves before the Emancipation Proclamation but has a complicated history that is worth exploring.
As part of the Martin Luther King commission, I had the honor of nominating Detective Dan Rouse for the Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award. He has been a good friend to CKI, helping with our cameras and security. But more than that, he is doing this work. At the EPD and the wider community. He and I attended a six week discussion group, Elgin Study Circles, run by Cathy Gaddis, on racism for leaders in Elgin. He took that model and created similar discussion groups at the Elgin Police Department. Safe, non-judgmental spaces where officers can explore their implicit bias, where they can discuss their fears, concerns, whatever.
Why do I spend so much time at the EPD? Why do I work so hard on dismantling racism. When I took a course from Facing History and Ourselves about teaching Holocaust I learned, all the way back before Sarah was born about the deep connection between racism and anti-semitism. People who are racist are also often, sadly anti-semitic as well. It has been said that anti-semitism is the canary in the coal mine. As an example, the book Caste makes the compelling argument that much of the Nuremberg laws and the beginnings of the Holocaust were based on the Jim Crow laws here in the states. That is part of why the work we are currently doing to bring The Thin Edge of the Wedge, the Holocaust play written by someone who grew up right here in Elgin at CKI and U46 is so important. That is why my being a police chaplain and our visibility is so important. I will continue this critical work. Like Heschel, I believe my feet are praying.
This weekend, sadly we mark the one year anniversary since an armed gunman held hostage four individuals at the synagogue in Colleyville, TX. Our president, Robin Coyne, read the following prayer that the rabbi from Colleyville penned for this occasion and sent out by the ADL.
Prayer for Peace
Written by Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker
In a world that’s broken and shattered,
Plagued by indifference, falsehood, and corruption,
We feel the uncertainty.
We feel the pain.
And we are not helpless.
God, we pray for peace:
For wholeness and healing,
For safety when violence touches us all.
God, we pray for peace:
For justice and compassion,
For acceptance in the face of hatred.
We will not be held hostage to hopelessness.
We pray for peace.
We struggle for peace.
We bring peace.
We will be whole.
God, help us be whole as we pray for peace.