Lessons in Solidarity from a Rabbi and a Minister
“Morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” - Abraham Joshua Heschel
This past Saturday - January 27th - was Holocaust Remembrance Day, and it was observed during a time of renewed Jewish suffering. The nation-state of Israel is still in mourning for the loss of its civilians and soldiers, all the while having to fight off the forces of terror coming from Gaza and Lebanon.
Meanwhile, a stunning lack of solidarity is being accorded to the Jewish State. In an audacious political move, South Africa took Israel to the International Court of Justice, accusing it of genocide. In America, in the wake of the October 7th atrocities, the Chicago chapter of Black Lives Matter posted an image on X (formerly Twitter) signaling its support for the paragliding mass murderers of Hamas.
Events like these signify a troubling connection. For the longest time, Westerners have equated the struggle for black freedom in America and South Africa with the struggle for Palestinian rights against Israel. According to Coleman Hughes, this framing of the narrative places Israelis in the role of the white oppressors, Palestinians as the black oppressed, and the nation-state of Israel as an illegitimate, settler-colonialist, apartheid regime.
Perhaps it is mere coincidence that Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed in the same month as Martin Luther King Jr. Day - January 15th. But for this year, I wish to observe both in connection to one another. In honoring Dr. King, I would like to also honor Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.
The great Rabbi’s deep friendship and solidarity with Martin Luther King Jr. sets an enduring example of the historical connection between America’s black and Jewish populations. Rabbi Heschel’s commitment to the Civil Rights Movement, including (but not limited to) marching with Dr. King in Selma, Alabama in 1965, shows his profound belief that civil rights are human rights, and that injustice suffered by one individual or group affects all human beings.
Their friendship is all the more remarkable considering how different their backgrounds are. King grew up in the segregated South, while Heschel was brought up in Poland. King was a Baptist Christian, while Heschel was a Hasidic Jew. King was American-born, while Heschel emigrated to America in 1940 to escape Nazi persecution. But these differences reveal crucial similarities that bring the two together: they both had firsthand experience of unjust, group-based discrimination, and they were both people of the Bible. Rabbi Heschel’s devout faith and advocacy for justice is clearly reflected in his namesake - Abraham the Father of all nations, and Joshua the Prophet who brought his people to the Promised Land. Echoing the Christian Gospel, Heschel proclaimed in a fiery 1963 speech: “Racism is satanism, unmitigated evil.” To the great Rabbi, religion is first and foremost a humanistic endeavor: “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… You cannot worship God and at the same time look at man as if he were a horse.” Dr. King’s fight for equal treatment was also Rabbi Heschel’s fight, given the enduring legacy of antisemitism in America that continues to this day.
Similarly, the two men were in lockstep when it comes to Zionism and the Jewish people’s right to nationhood. “The presence of Israel,” says the Rabbi. “is the repudiation of despair. Israel calls for a renewal of trust in the Lord of history.” “Zionism, proclaims the Minister. “is nothing less than the dream and ideal of the Jewish people returning to live in their own land.” Dr. King saw little conflict between black Americans’ fight for equality and the Jewish people’s fight for self-determination. Likewise, he saw little difference between those who call themselves ‘anti-Zionist’ and genuine antisemites: “Antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently antisemitic, and ever will be so.”
While Rabbi Heschel stridently opposed the American War in Vietnam, he was fully supportive of Israel’s war against the Arabian forces in 1967. “We have a right to demand, ‘Love they neighbor as thyself,’ said the Rabbi, but “We have no right to demand, ‘Love they neighbor and kill thyself.’” For Rabbi Heschel, Zionism represents no less than the eternal promise of Judaism: “The land… was sanctified by the people when they entered the land under the leadership of Joshua ... The land of Israel without the God of Israel will be here today and gone tomorrow.”
The term ‘solidarity’ is defined as: “unity (as of a group or class) that produces or is based on community of interests, objectives, and standards.” But for many political activist movements of contemporary times (Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Pro-Palestine), the word has become a virtue-signaling shibboleth - you either march with us or you are complicit with evil. It should come as no surprise that those who resort to this kind of moral terrorism tend to be the most morally blind. Both Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel believed firmly enough in the power of moral persuasion not to resort to tactics of browbeating or cajoling. As Dr. Cornel West, the spiritual successor of both men, says: “King’s critique of the US’s barbaric involvement in Vietnam is inconceivable without the strong and loving pressure of Heschel, while Heschel’s critique of American white supremacy is unthinkable without the words and deeds of King.” True solidarity does not merely consist of strong ethical convictions - it has to come from genuine compassion also.