“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words resonate today as much as ever. They are direct. They call us to action. And, above all, they propel us to look past our satisfaction with what we changed yesterday, and to increase our attention to…
As vital as Martin Luther King Day is on America’s calendar, it has a special meaning this year for American Jews. This year, 2016, we will mark the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the fracturing of the historic black-Jewish civil rights alliance. If you want to talk about American Jewish liberal betrayal, as and…
A piece of civil rights history with a poignant link to a New Jersey Jewish community is going on the auction block. A signed program from a 1963 Shabbat sermon delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Temple Sha’arey Shalom in Springfield, New Jersey is available for sale at Lelands Auction in an online…
In 1964, 600 Jewish men and women journeyed South to help register voters, most of them carrying memories of relatives lost to the Holocaust. Two of them lost their lives. At a gathering of nearly 200 people in Selma’s Congregation Mishkan Israel on Sunday, the brother of Andrew Goodman recalled that it took the death…
The national release of the film “Selma” during the week leading up to Martin Luther King Day, has led to a national moment of heshbon hanefesh (soul searching) over the dramatic series of events during the first three months of 1965 in which indelible images of brutal police violence against peaceful marchers convened by Dr….
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, right, marches with Dr. Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders / Getty Images (JTA) — The 50th anniversary of the 1965 march at Selma is being commemorated this year with the release of the film “Selma.” Regrettably, the film represents the march as many see it today, only as an…
When filmmakers choose what to include or exclude from the stories they tell, their choices often have repercussions beyond the drama on the screen. In films based on real-life events, omissions can seriously distort the way we remember the past. “Selma,” a film directed by Ava DuVernay, offers an ambitious portrait of Martin Luther King…
Selma. Nearly 50 years ago it was violent Selma, impossibly racist Selma, site of Bloody Sunday, when peaceful civil rights marchers made their first attempt to cross the Pettus Bridge on the way to the state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. They succeeded on their third attempt, protected by federal troops. You’ve seen the famous picture…
