2019 Temple Emanuel MLK Service, with Brenda Wolff, Member, Montgomery County Board of Education

Temple Emanuel's annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Commemorative Shabbat Service was held on January 18.  Cantor Lindsay Kanter did a wonderful job conducting the service, along our Temple Choir, Kol Zimrah, and the Temple Band.  Readings from Dr. King’s canon were presented by Temple teens Ethan Greeley, Seth Greeley, Rina Levy, and Aaron Northern. (Those readings may be found at the end of this blogpost.) Our guest speaker was newly-elected Montgomery County Board of Education Member Brenda Wolff.

 

In advance of the service, Temple member Sandy Fleishman put together a showcase in the lobby presenting some of the history of Dr. King, along with the involvement of the Jewish Community and Temple Emanuel in the struggle.  The showcase included the list of all MLK Service speakers we have had over the years.  Veterans of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, political leaders, journalists, and activists in the more recent struggles for human dignity have all spoken here, and they challenged us to both remember the past and build toward the future.        

In my introduction of Brenda, I noted that in “the 1950s and ‘60s, Dr. King challenged us not only to dismantle legal segregation, but also to work toward a ‘Beloved Community’ in which all our children are valued and have the true opportunity to make the most of their lives.  From her perspective as an expert in education and as a new Board of Education Member, Brenda has much to offer us as we face the challenges in our local community to effectuate this important part of Dr. King’s vision.“

So because we need to look to the future in Montgomery County, we were very pleased that Brenda agreed to be our guest speaker. Her talk was thoughtful, provocative, and inspiring.  She opened by reminding us of Dr. King’s admonition that “[o]ur lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Brenda spoke about things that matter in the Montgomery County Public Schools noting that the school system has many challenges and discussing the challenges we must meet if we are to “fully achieve Dr. King’s dream.” Her goal that evening was to bring into focus the challenges, so that we can work on solutions.  She succeeded.

Brenda explored four areas:  The Opportunity Gap, Resources, Student Safety, and Cultural Competency.  She noted that it is vital that “we have a fair and equitable distribution of resources and opportunities for all our students, regardless of zip code,” and further observed that many children “come with needs that require additional resources to support learning, whether it be special education, language services, trauma related issues, or homelessness, to name a few.”  She urged that we “invest in our education system to develop a base of citizens who are prepared for the future economy,” and to that end we must “evaluat[e] our programs to ensure that we are funding programs that work.”

Explaining that”[s]tudent achievement is impacted by their sense of security as well as their belief as to whether they are welcome in the school community, we must demand fair treatment of all and a zero tolerance of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, socio economic factors, religion, sexual orientation, and disability. . . . We must teach respect for all and we must model that respect with each other.”  Connected to this is the matter of Cultural Competency.  “It is implicit bias that we must constantly confront. If we fail to admit that this rests in all of us, and [are not] willing to confront it head on, then we will never achieve change.” Brenda urged that “parents and the community . . . be part of the development” of cultural competency training because they are “able to highlight particular cultural issues that may not be a part of the training . . . that may impact on whether any particular student or group of students feels a part of the school community.”  [My note:  This is an important aspect of the challenges we face, and has been directly addressed by other speakers at Shabbat Services over the last few years.  See, e.g., here and here.]

Commenting on “the creeping lack of civility” in our communities, Brenda reminded us that “[w]e cannot have a beloved community without the characteristics of equality, justice, and kindness.”  She urged that “[w]e must consciously and actively resist the subliminal urges to segregate our neighborhoods, offices, and schools.  We must speak up when there is an unfair allocation of resources.  We must fight against oppression and the targeting of people solely because of their race, color, ethnicity, sex or sexual orientation.”

Before the service began, I advised Brenda that the normal custom in Reform Synagogues is to not applaud at the end of sermons or similar presentations.  Yet, the spirit so moved the Congregation that there was an eruption of applause at the end of her talk.  

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2019 MLK READINGS

READINGS – PART 1

Tonight we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Let us remember, this evening, some of his words.  To quote our prayer book, "Let us learn in order to teach; let us teach in order to do." 

Dr. King's vision was rooted in our own religious traditions:  He often quoted from Amos (5:24), "We are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied, until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."

His vision was rooted in a faith that right would prevail: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

He also knew that only through the work of our own hands would the world become a better place:  "Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. . . .  No social advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of dedicated individuals, who are willing to be co-workers with God."

READINGS – PART 2

Dr. King was able to express to the American community not only the injustice of segregation, but the deeper ways in which it destroyed the social and moral fabric of all those involved in it.  In his famous Letter From the Birmingham Jail to the Clergymen of Birmingham, Dr. King explained --

            Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  We are caught in an     inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of             destiny.  Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.

He went on to predict that one day (indeed, now our own day) we all will know that civil rights workers who were willing to go "to jail for conscience's sake . . . were in reality standing up for the best in the American dream and the most sacred values of our Judeo-Christian heritage, and thusly, carrying our whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence."

Martin Luther King recognized that our goal could not simply be the end of legal discrimination -- that we must go beyond that:  "We are simply seeking to bring into full realization the American dream -- a dream yet unfulfilled.  A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men no longer argue that the color of a man's skin determines the content of his character; the dream of a land where every man will respect the dignity and worth of human personality -- this is the dream.

"When it is realized, the jangling discords of our nation will be transformed into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood, and men everywhere will know that America is truly the land of the free and the home of the brave."

READINGS – PART 3

Dr. King's lessons are lessons for our community, our nation, our world.  In his 1967 book,Where Do We Go From Here:  Chaos or Community?, he wrote: "Some years ago a famous novelist died.  Among his papers was found a list of suggested plots for future stories, the most prominently underscored being this one:  'A widely separated family inherits a house in which they have to live together.'"

"This is the great new problem of mankind.  We have inherited a large house, a great 'world house' in which we have to live together -- black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Moslem       and Hindu -- a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest, who,    because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each            other in peace."

“If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective. Now the judgment of God is upon us, and we must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools.”

READINGS – PART 4

Just days before his assassination, Dr. King spoke at the National Cathedral.  He cautioned that "One of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change, and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses, that the new situation demands.  They end up sleeping through a revolution. . . .

"[We]are challenged to develop a world perspective.  No individual can live along, no nation can live alone, and anyone who feels that he can live along is sleeping through a revolution.  The world in which we live is geographically one.  The challenge that we face today is to make it one in terms of brotherhood. . . .

"Through our scientific and technological genius, we have made of this world a neighborhood and yet we have not had the ethical commitment to make of it a brotherhood.  But somehow, and in some way, we have got to do this.  We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools.  We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. . . .”

Again, for it bears repeating: "[H]uman progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability.  It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God.  And without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation.  So we must help time and realize that the time is always ripe to do right."

How do the leaked emails in 2016 election campaign fit into the whole story?

This morning, we woke up to the news that Roger Stone has been indicted and arrested. This may be an important step in the Mueller Investigation’s effort to discover and reveal the extent and reach of the Russian effort to undermine norms of truth and decency in the 2016 election. 

But I have a related question that has been nagging me for a long time:  Other than the email strongly suggesting that Donna Brazille passed along CNN questions to the Clinton Campaign in advance of one of her debates with Bernie Sanders, did any of the hacked and dumped emails actually reflect badly on Clinton or her campaign?  Or were the releases designed to create a smokescreen to create the impression that somewhere in the dump there must be damning information, even if nothing could be identified?  Were the dumps simply a way to “confirm” — without actual evidence — the trope (aided by Clinton herself with her obviously disingenuous explanations about why she set up a private server) that she was fundamentally corrupt and not to be trusted?  if so, this was to greatest piece of B.S. ever successfully inflicted on the American electorate. In due course, the Mueller Investigation will definitively establish whether this was accomplished by the Russian Government in collusion with the Trump Campaign. And, finally, hopefully it will reveal how much Trump knew about the collusion. Given his past patterns of behavior - he was known to be a micromanager of the Trump Organization - and his close ties with corrupt Russian financial interests, it is a reasonable hypothesis that Donald Trump was, and is, The Siberian Candidate. 

A timely scriptural commentary on our current national political paralysis

I am a member of my synagogue's Board of Trustees.  We open every Board meeting with a D'var Torah, which usually is a commentary on the portion of the Torah being read that week.  My turn was last Thursday. After doing my research, I decided to offer a published commentary by Bill Dauster, who for many years ran our Temple's Saturday morning Torah study group.  (I am posting this with Bill's permission.)

Here is what I presented Thursday evening:

This week’s Torah portion, the B’shalach – “when he let go” -- is from Exodus (13:17 – 17:16).  It includes the events following Pharaoh's initial agreement to let the Tribes of Israel leave Egypt, and his subsequent change of mind.

 Almost exactly a year ago, the Washington Jewish Week published a commentary by former Temple Member Bill Dauster, a now-retired Senate aide who for many years ran our Saturday morning Torah Study Group.  The title was Pharaoh’s administration offers a cautionary tale for today. https://washingtonjewishweek.com/43340/pharaohs-administration-offers-a-cautionary-tale-for-today/editorial-opinion/voices/

I remember being impressed with the piece at the time, and it appears to me to be even more instructive today, now that the American President’s experienced advisors have departed. Rather than give my take on Bill’s commentary, I will simply present Bill’s words:

All national leaders have staff. Pharaoh was no exception. The Torah tells us that Pharaoh’s administration included taskmasters, overseers, courtiers, sages, sorcerers, magicians and an army. Good leaders know how to pick good people to help them. And they know when to listen to them. One of Pharaoh’s shortcomings was that he failed to do so.

The Book of Exodus says that Pharaoh’s courtiers shared his displeasure when the Israelites failed to produce their quota of bricks, witnessed Aaron cast down his rod that turned into a serpent, saw Aaron strike the Nile and turn it into blood, and suffered frogs and swarms of insects in their houses. In these encounters, Pharaoh’s courtiers appear much like a Greek chorus, adding volume to Pharaoh’s entourage, but saying nothing that the Torah deemed worth recording.

But after Pharaoh’s magicians failed to produce lice, the magicians told Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God!” Pharaoh, however, remained obstinate — his “heart stiffened” — and he did not heed them. The Torah does not waste words. It included this caution for a reason.

Pharaoh would have done better to listen to his magicians. The Talmud quotes the Sages saying: If your friend calls you a donkey, prepare a saddle for your back. Pharaoh’s magicians were trying to be his friends.

When Moses foretold the plague of hail, Pharaoh’s courtiers were divided. Some feared God and some did not. Those who feared God’s word brought their slaves and livestock indoors to safety, but those who paid no regard to God’s word left their slaves and livestock in the open. Moses concluded that

Pharaoh and his courtiers did not yet fear God.

Even though God then hardened the hearts of both Pharaoh and his courtiers, when Moses threatened the plague of locusts on the courtiers’ and other Egyptians’ houses, Pharaoh’s staff summoned up the courage to warn him: “How long shall this one be a snare to us? Let a delegation go to worship the Eternal their God! Are you not yet aware that Egypt is lost?” Pharaoh at first seemed to heed their advice, but negotiations that he led quickly broke down over exactly who among the Israelites would get to leave.

So now two sets of advisers had counseled Pharaoh to relent. The midrash quotes a proverb similar to that in the Talmud. The midrash’s version says: If one man tells you that you have donkey’s ears, do not believe him; if two tell it to you, order a halter.

God gave Pharaoh two chances to listen to advice. Pharaoh failed to listen, and ended up looking like a donkey.

Unfortunately for both Pharaoh and his courtiers, their story did not have a happy ending. After the Israelites had fled, both Pharaoh and his courtiers had a change of heart and said, “What is this we have done, releasing Israel from our service?”

Pharaoh ended up losing his entire army in the sea.

In the closing chapters of the Torah, Moses recalled what God did “to Pharaoh and to all his courtiers and to his whole country.” And the final sentence of the Torah repeats mention of the signs and portents that God sent Moses to display “against Pharaoh and all his courtiers and his whole country.” The Torah remembers God’s victory over both Pharaoh and the staff to whom he failed to listen.