By Rabbi Lana Zilberman Soloway

 

I used to think that the most important line in the Hebrew Bible was Love your neighbor as yourself. Then I realized that it is easy to love your neighbor because he or she is usually quite like yourself. What is hard is to love the stranger, one whose color, culture or creed is different from yours. That is why the command Love the stranger because you were once strangers, resonates so often through the Hebrew Bible. It is summoning us now. – Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

On Veterans Day weekend, Andrew Fromer, myself, and five of Or Ami’s wonderful and courageous teens joined other synagogues’ groups from around LA and traveled together to Georgia and Alabama, to learn about the Civil Rights movement and its everlasting effect on the American past, present and future. This trip was operated by Tzedek America (https://tzedekamerica.org/), led by Rabbi Adrianne Pasternak, the organization’s Associate Director and our own Or Ami partner, together with Ziggy Valdez and Pastor Rondell Eskridge. 

This journey was not just a trip, but a powerful exploration of history, resilience, and the strength of the human spirit.

We started in Birmingham, Alabama, on Friday night, celebrating Shabbat in Temple Emanu-El, a Reform synagogue in the city’s downtown (Did you know there are 10,000 Jews living in Birmingham out of 18,000 in all Alabama?). 

On Saturday morning, we began our day at the Historic Bethel Baptist Church in downtown Birmingham. Built in 1926, this church became the epicenter of a non-violent protest movement that swept across the United States and around the world. We met with Reverend Wilder, who taught us about the leadership of Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth, and explained how and why Bethel became the official launching pad of the Modern Civil Rights Movement.

Next, we drew inspiration from Pastor Gwen Webb, who at the age of 13, was a prominent leader in the Children’s Crusade and as an adult became Birmingham’s second Black female police officer. She shared powerful memories of her non-violence training, leading students in the march, enduring fire hoses and police dogs, and spending seven days and nights in jail, all for the right to live with the same freedoms as her white neighbors. 

After visiting the powerful and very memorable Kelly Ingram Park, Pastor Rondell guided us through the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, and the famous 16th Street Baptist Church, offering valuable insights and deepening our understanding of the history and diverse narratives before, during, and after the Civil Rights movement. 

Sunday morning in Montgomery began with a boat ride along the Alabama River, where tens of thousands of enslaved people were once trafficked, providing us a sobering perspective on the slave trade. It was very difficult to reconcile the  beauty of nature along the river with the horrific understanding that ten million black people were kidnapped from Africa and brought to America by force, in order to be sold as slaves. 

After the boat ride, we visited the important sites of the Equal Justice Initiative, created by attorney and social justice activist, Bryan Stevenson.

At the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, we stepped inside a train car like those used to transport enslaved people, stood within a house once inhabited by enslaved people, and were brought to tears by sculptures crafted from bricks made by enslaved artisans. 

At the National Monument to Freedom, a wall of engraved names honoring four million formerly enslaved people who were emancipated, we also learned the tragic fact that six million lost their lives in slavery. This is an astonishing number, unfortunately familiar to us Jews through our own tragedy. 

The Legacy Museum presented the history of racial injustice in a way that was both accessible and thought-provoking, sparking reflection among our young people.

At the Memorial for Peace and Justice, we were deeply moved by the hanging monuments, each representing a county where racial terror lynchings occurred. This experience led to meaningful discussions about empathy, justice, and the role our students can play in creating a more compassionate future.

We recited Kaddish together, remembering and respecting all the lost lives we learned about. We reminded ourselves about the most important commandment in our tradition, loving the stranger, a command that repeats 36 times in the Torah, teaching us again and again about the most important value of humanity, B’tzelem Elohim, that every single human being is created in the image of God, and that is how each human should be treated. 

On Sunday afternoon, we explored the city of Selma with Terry Chestnut, son of the first black Civil Rights attorney J.L. Chestnut, who was also Martin Luther King’s personal attorney. Terry introduced us to Reverend Benny Tucker, who served as MLK’s local bodyguard. Reverend Tucker welcomed us into his home and shared memories of his time with Dr. King.

Walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge was a powerful and emotional experience. We sang Mi Chamocha and We Shall Overcome and we prayed with our feet, remembering the famous words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, uttered at the time he walked over this same bridge, side by side with MLK, during the famous March 1965 march from Selma to Montgomry, fighting for voting rights.

On our last day, as we approached the final leg of our journey, we made a stop in LaGrange, Georgia, at the Warren Temple Methodist Church, the site of a memorial to Austin Callaway, a young man who was lynched in 1940. 

We learned the importance of bearing witness, saying people’s names out loud, and also about the power of forgiveness.  

Our journey concluded in Atlanta, with visits to Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth home and his final resting place.

It was truly a life changing journey. A time of learning, reflection, inspiration, and understanding the power of dreams, resilience and true friendship. 

One of the last people we met in Georgia asked me: What do you think, if MLK would be alive today, would he be proud of everything that we’ve accomplished?

I smiled at her and said: Yes, absolutely, he would have been proud, and at the same time, he would have continued to fight for everything else that we still need to accomplish.

During our closing circle, I reminded our young people that this same weekend was the 86th anniversary of the Kristallnacht, and the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, events that no one believed would ever happen. But they did happen. I also reminded them that it was over 400 days post October 7th, and 101 Hostages are still held by the Hamas in Gaza, and also about the Mob of hundreds of Israelis and Jews in Amsterdam which by chance alone did not turn into a lynch. 

So, yes, we have to appreciate everything that we as a civilization have accomplished, and at the same time, understand that there is no time to rest yet, because there is still so much to do and so much to fight for, until we can be truly proud.

May we continue to walk the talk, never give up, and always believe that each of us can make a difference, one person and one day at a time, we will continue to practice tikkun olam, repair the world and make it better.

No everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faces” – James Baldwin