King for a Day?
My sister is beside herself. She and her Israeli husband and kids had moved fromIsraelto northernCaliforniajust over a year ago. Now her kids attend the same Jewish day school she and I had gone to when we grew up there nearly three decades ago.
"It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day," she sighs on the phone over the noisy children in the background. "The kids are off school today."
I can feel the despair in her voice. Nothing against Dr. King, but a long weekend (the holiday is always observed on a Monday) in mid-January when schools were off, but her husband's workplace wasn't, was not something she had anticipated.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is aUnited Statesfederal holiday marking the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January, which is today. The holiday was observed for the first time in theUnited Stateson January 20, 1986, the year I turned 14. As a young teenager, I remembered enjoying the fact that we got a brand new day off, but we honestly didn't know what to do with ourselves. For the first three years, until I got a driver's license, I recall a tradition of my friend and I riding our bikes to the local bowling alley and spending all day bowling ‘in honor' of Dr. King.
Needless to say, MLK Day has become more poignant since Barack Obama became US President four years ago. In the 1960's Martin Luther King Jr. could only ‘dream' about an African-American becoming President of theUnited States, but now it is a reality.
Interestingly enough, MLK Day is not the only holiday that has gotten more presidential attention since Obama took office. One could add Passover to that list. The Obamas have hosted a Passover Seder in the White House every year since 2008. Obama even uses the same type of Maxwell House Haggadah that I do. While some might dismiss the White House Seder as just a gimmick or a photo-opp, it obviously means a lot to the current President and First Lady. Why else would they make the effort to organize a Passover Seder if they didn't feel connected to it? No previous US President ever made a Seder. It is obvious that as African-Americans the Obamas strongly feel the connection to the universality of the Passover's themes of struggle and liberation, from slavery to freedom.
The struggle for liberation was also a theme of the Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960's. Many Jews marched with King in the protests for civil rights. Some estimates say that of all whites who participated in King's civil rights movement, between half and two-thirds were Jewish.
During his lifetime King witnessed the birth of Israeland the continuing struggle to build a nation. He consistently reiterated his stand on the Israel- Arab conflict, stating "Israel's right to exist as a state in security is uncontestable." It was no accident that King emphasized "security" in his statements on theMiddle East.
On March 25, 1968, less than two weeks before his tragic assassination, he spoke out with clarity and directness stating, "…peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality."
King also once delared, "I solemnly pledge to do my utmost to uphold the fair name of the Jews — because bigotry in any form is an affront to us all."
During an appearance at HarvardUniversityshortly before his death, a student stood up and asked King to address himself to the issue of Zionism. The question was clearly hostile. King responded, "When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews, you are talking anti-Semitism."
A few years ago King's son, Martin Luther King III, visitedIsraelpreaching his father's doctrine of non-resistance in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But before we look to solve conflicts with our neighbors, we need to take a hard look at the conflicts among Jews inIsrael.
Many compared Tania Rosenblatt, the young secular Israeli woman who refused to move to the back of a public bus fromAshdodtoJerusalem, to Rosa Parks, the African-American woman who refused to move from her seat in the front section on a Montegomery,Alabamasegregated public bus to the back in 1955 when ordered to do so. If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today what would he make of today's situation? Perhaps King himself, as a man, would be welcome to sit in the front section of the bus inIsrael, regardless of his skin color, but what about Mrs. Parks, or Mrs. King, Mrs. Obama or any women of any race for that matter? Would they be spared the harassment that Miss Rosenblatt suffered?
Unfortunately is not the only sector of the Israeli public where discrimination rears its ugly head. News reports state that apartment owners in the southern town ofKiryat Malachirefuse to rent or see their apartments to Israeli's of Ethiopian descent. How would Dr. King feel about that?
Unfortunately, King's ‘I Have a Dream' speech would not require too much alteration if given today. It would be a dream where all men and women could sit wherever they please on a public bus. It would be a dream where women would not be relegated to the other side of the street or spat on or be called derogatory names. It would be a dream where any Jew could rent an apartment anywhere in Israelregardless of the color of their skin or country of origin. Maybe we should mark MLK day inIsrael.
Israelis supposed to be ‘a light unto the nations'. Unfortunately, right now, the lessons of tolerance that Martin Luther King Jr. Day are supposed to evoke are lost on some extreme elements ofIsrael's population. And that's a real pity, because MLK Day is about more than just going bowling.
"It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day," she sighs on the phone over the noisy children in the background. "The kids are off school today."
I can feel the despair in her voice. Nothing against Dr. King, but a long weekend (the holiday is always observed on a Monday) in mid-January when schools were off, but her husband's workplace wasn't, was not something she had anticipated.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is aUnited Statesfederal holiday marking the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January, which is today. The holiday was observed for the first time in theUnited Stateson January 20, 1986, the year I turned 14. As a young teenager, I remembered enjoying the fact that we got a brand new day off, but we honestly didn't know what to do with ourselves. For the first three years, until I got a driver's license, I recall a tradition of my friend and I riding our bikes to the local bowling alley and spending all day bowling ‘in honor' of Dr. King.
Needless to say, MLK Day has become more poignant since Barack Obama became US President four years ago. In the 1960's Martin Luther King Jr. could only ‘dream' about an African-American becoming President of theUnited States, but now it is a reality.
Interestingly enough, MLK Day is not the only holiday that has gotten more presidential attention since Obama took office. One could add Passover to that list. The Obamas have hosted a Passover Seder in the White House every year since 2008. Obama even uses the same type of Maxwell House Haggadah that I do. While some might dismiss the White House Seder as just a gimmick or a photo-opp, it obviously means a lot to the current President and First Lady. Why else would they make the effort to organize a Passover Seder if they didn't feel connected to it? No previous US President ever made a Seder. It is obvious that as African-Americans the Obamas strongly feel the connection to the universality of the Passover's themes of struggle and liberation, from slavery to freedom.
The struggle for liberation was also a theme of the Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960's. Many Jews marched with King in the protests for civil rights. Some estimates say that of all whites who participated in King's civil rights movement, between half and two-thirds were Jewish.
During his lifetime King witnessed the birth of Israeland the continuing struggle to build a nation. He consistently reiterated his stand on the Israel- Arab conflict, stating "Israel's right to exist as a state in security is uncontestable." It was no accident that King emphasized "security" in his statements on theMiddle East.
On March 25, 1968, less than two weeks before his tragic assassination, he spoke out with clarity and directness stating, "…peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality."
King also once delared, "I solemnly pledge to do my utmost to uphold the fair name of the Jews — because bigotry in any form is an affront to us all."
During an appearance at HarvardUniversityshortly before his death, a student stood up and asked King to address himself to the issue of Zionism. The question was clearly hostile. King responded, "When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews, you are talking anti-Semitism."
A few years ago King's son, Martin Luther King III, visitedIsraelpreaching his father's doctrine of non-resistance in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But before we look to solve conflicts with our neighbors, we need to take a hard look at the conflicts among Jews inIsrael.
Many compared Tania Rosenblatt, the young secular Israeli woman who refused to move to the back of a public bus fromAshdodtoJerusalem, to Rosa Parks, the African-American woman who refused to move from her seat in the front section on a Montegomery,Alabamasegregated public bus to the back in 1955 when ordered to do so. If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today what would he make of today's situation? Perhaps King himself, as a man, would be welcome to sit in the front section of the bus inIsrael, regardless of his skin color, but what about Mrs. Parks, or Mrs. King, Mrs. Obama or any women of any race for that matter? Would they be spared the harassment that Miss Rosenblatt suffered?
Unfortunately is not the only sector of the Israeli public where discrimination rears its ugly head. News reports state that apartment owners in the southern town ofKiryat Malachirefuse to rent or see their apartments to Israeli's of Ethiopian descent. How would Dr. King feel about that?
Unfortunately, King's ‘I Have a Dream' speech would not require too much alteration if given today. It would be a dream where all men and women could sit wherever they please on a public bus. It would be a dream where women would not be relegated to the other side of the street or spat on or be called derogatory names. It would be a dream where any Jew could rent an apartment anywhere in Israelregardless of the color of their skin or country of origin. Maybe we should mark MLK day inIsrael.
Israelis supposed to be ‘a light unto the nations'. Unfortunately, right now, the lessons of tolerance that Martin Luther King Jr. Day are supposed to evoke are lost on some extreme elements ofIsrael's population. And that's a real pity, because MLK Day is about more than just going bowling.
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