Monday, Jan. 20, will be a doubly significant day.
The United States will mark the (hopefully) peaceful transfer of power with the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 47th president. Noon that day will be a moment of hope and anticipation for all, but trepidation for some and relief for others. Ideally, it will be time when Americans of all stripes come together to work toward common goals and shared values.
The United States will also mark Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to honor the man who strove to bring Americans together under an umbrella of acceptance and equality, to be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Rabbi Marc Schneier, in his 2008 book, Shared Dreams: Martin Luther King, Jr. & The Jewish Community, wrote, “No black figure of the period received as much allegiance from people sympathetic to civil rights as did Martin Luther King, Jr. and no segment of the white community provided as much — and as consistent — support for King as did the Jewish community.”
Many Jewish activists, including prominent rabbis, marched alongside Dr. King in Selma, Alabama and Washington, DC. Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were Jewish civil rights activists who were murdered, along with black activist James Chaney, during the Freedom Summer campaign in Mississippi in 1964. The three young men were involved in efforts to register African American voters in the segregated South. There are many more examples of Jewish support for Dr. King’s cause.
Less known is King’s support for issues that concerned the Jewish community, such as easing discrimination against Jews in the Soviet Union and assuring the safety and security of the State of Israel.
King spoke out against anti-Semitism in the US. Don’t we wish he were here to do that today?
Schneier writes that King did not often have the opportunity to express his support of the Jewish community because he was almost wholly consumed — as he should have been — with the fight for blacks to secure full human rights in this country.
Jews should be proud of their participation in the civil rights struggle. They should hold that up as an inspiration to all generations:
It is emblematic of what the Aleinu prayer calls “tikkun olam under the kingship of the Alm-ghty,” the mandate for Jews to repair the world, to make it whole and move it closer to the Messiah’s message of truth and compassion under G-d.
© IJN 2025
