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When Dr. Martin Luther King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel taught my dad to pray with his feet
(JTA) — Abraham Joshua Heschel, whose 50th yahrzeit we marked this past year, was for almost 30 years a member of the faculty at The Jewish Theological Seminary, which I lead. There he inspired many to incorporate traditional Jewish learning, observance and values into their modern lives.
But he also preached the importance of emulating the biblical prophets, who in his view, were not merely entranced conduits of God’s word but rather fully aware critics of the social injustices of their days. He believed that the immanent presence of God in the world required humans to fight injustice — as he did in his public advocacy for civil rights and in his fast friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King. Through his teaching, writing and personal example, Heschel inspired thousands to deepen their Jewish commitments and actively advance social justice causes.
But how did that inspiration actually play out? Thanks to my father, Rabbi Mordecai Rubin, I am better able to answer that question. I knew that my father had studied with Rabbi Heschel at the JTS Rabbinical School, and I remember my father attending the March on Washington in August 1963 and being awed by the experience. He woke up in the dark to board a chartered bus by 5 a.m along with other Jewish professionals and some lay leaders. He recalled that only as he saw the hundreds of other buses on the highway en route to the rally did he realize how important the day would be.
A young child at the time, I could not fully appreciate the historic importance of the march — its size, the presence of so many clergy including rabbis, the impact of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. I also did not comprehend how courageous it was for my father to attend that march and then to speak about it to his congregation. But as an American Jewish historian, I know that — contrary to conventional retrospective wisdom — most American Jews at the time were reluctant to get involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Less than 20 years after the Shoah, these Jews, many of whom were children of immigrants who fled Tsarist Russia, hungered for acceptance as one of the three primary American religious groups. Most American Jews feared that their own security would be threatened if they rocked the boat by championing civil rights.
So why did he (and perhaps others like him) decide to attend the March on Washington? I got a glimpse into his thinking when I recently found the Rosh Hashanah sermon that he delivered to his congregation, the Wantagh Jewish Center, in Wantagh, New York, in September 1963, a month after the march.
In the mood of soul searching and introspections — so dominant on these High Holy Days — I should like to share these thoughts with you…
It was the first time that I had participated in a march and with each passing day — awareness swells within me of something special and unique that transformed and perhaps even reformed me…
I had many moments of doubt instead of standing up to be counted in the roll call of human conscience. As a matter of fact, I must confess that my decision to go was not without questions of doubt…. But there comes a moment of truth for every human being. And it came [to me] as I began to reflect…Why was I so angry at the non-Jewish world for remaining deaf to the pleas of our brethren in Nazi Germany 20 years ago? Why didn’t we or our Jewish leaders march on Washington when our own flesh and blood was being led to the crematoria…
We have learned to love life and to enjoy it – But we have forgotten how to live — how to sacrifice, and how to give of ourselves….and even the one great source of our idealism – Religion, our Judaic faith, instead of remaining an institution of protest against the comfortable self-centered, self-satisfying way of life, has more often than not, been content to be engulfed by it and a symbol of this evil…
I hear the echoes of Rabbi Heschel in my father’s words. His own passion about the Jewish imperative to speak out against injustice is palpable. But my father knew his congregants might balk at this message. He understood that to be heard, he had to speak not as a prophet but as a fellow suburban postwar American Jew. He needed his congregants to understand that he identified with their fears, struggles and hopes. Only then could he gently encourage them to reexamine their assumptions and choices. Only then could he inspire them to live up to their highest religious ideals.
Dr. King shone a moral light on the challenges and articulated the goals of the Civil Rights Movement that he led. This is one of the many reasons JTS bestowed upon him an honorary degree in 1964. In 1968, Heschel introduced King at the Rabbinical Assembly convention at the Concord Hotel in the Catskills, where he inspired over a thousand rabbis and spouses (including my parents) at what turned out to be one of his last addresses before his assassination. But the leadership challenge that my dad, and I’m sure many others, faced was more intimate and precarious in scale. For one thing, my father wasn’t employed by a social justice organization and didn’t have life tenure. To effect change over time, he’d need to motivate his congregants while continuing to secure his longevity in the congregation.
And he did just that, remaining in that congregation until his death 30 years later, deepening the Jewish values, commitments, and socially conscious engagement of many thousands of congregants over the decades.
Too often we see “leadership” discussed as if it were quantifiable and replicable. But it is often the elusive qualities, individual assets and relational insights that, when cultivated to the fullest, prove most effective. Know your constituency well and personalize your message so that it can be absorbed — that is the lesson I take from Heschel, King and Mordecai Rubin in my day-to-day leadership of JTS.
We need leaders with unique strengths to meet the varying needs of the people and this moment. Our world is rife with polarization and discord, discrimination and inequality. The events of the last three months have exposed an astonishing dearth of moral clarity and empathy. Whether a prophetic voice, gifted teacher, caring pastor or brilliant community builder, we need leaders who can meet the challenges of today and tomorrow by building on their strengths in relation to their constituencies, continually recalibrating and adapting to achieve the most effective impact.
As we remember the inspiring impact of these leaders, may we remain alert to the unheralded talent of those more ordinary among us who continue to lead with courage and distinctiveness, inspiring nothing short of the extraordinary.
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The post When Dr. Martin Luther King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel taught my dad to pray with his feet appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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