Martin Luther King Services at Temple Emanuel, 1986-2026

Martin Luther King Services at Temple Emanuel, 1986-2026

2026  Joshua Maxey, Executive Director of Bet Mishpachah and Member of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism.  See details and transcript of his presentation https://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2026/01/martin-luther-king-jr-commemorative.html

2025 James L. Stowe, Director of the Montgomery County Government’s Office of Human Rights. (The State of Human Rights in Montgomery County and Efforts to Build and Sustain a Community of Caring as a New Administration Arrives in Washington D.C.) More details on the flyer here.

2024 Dee Sanae, Founder Mosaic Visions.

2023  Gloria M. Shepherd, Executive Director of the Federal Highway Administration (Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at Temple Emanuel and Showing One Way That His Vision Is Being Realized by Governmental and Community Action)

https://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2023/01/celebrating-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-at.html

2022   Sunil Dasgupta, Temple Member and Director of the Political Science Program for the University of Maryland/Baltimore County at the Universities at Shady Grove (The Relevance of Dr. King to the “Critical Race Theory” Controversy)   https://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-relevance-of-dr-king-to-critical.html

 

2021  Yolanda Savage-Narva, Director of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Programs for the Union of Reform Judaism (Striving to Create Dr. King's Beloved Community: Reform Judaism's Quest for Racial Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion)  https://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2021/01/

 

2020   Toni Holness, Public Policy Director, Maryland ACLU  (Making the Dream Real: Disparties in the Criminal Justice System)

https://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2019/12/mlk-shabbat-service-on-jan-17-speaker.html and https://www.washingtonjewishweek.com/at-temple-emanuel-learning-in-order-to-do/ and http://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2020/02/at-temple-emanuel-learning-in-order-to.html

 

2019   Brenda Wolff, Montgomery County Board of Education (Making the Dream Real: Challenges in Public Education in Montgomery County) 

https://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2019/01/2019-temple-emanuel-mlk-service-with.html

 

2018   Ike Leggett, Montgomery County Executive (Implementing Dr. King's Vision: What We Have Done in Montgomery County, and What We Need To Do in theFuture) https://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2018/01/county-executive-ike-leggetts.html

 

2017   Will Saletan, Slate and Temple Member (Facing Implicit Bias)

http://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2017/01/martin-luther-king-jr-shabbat-service.html

 

2016   Noah Roos and Micah Guthrie, Operation Understanding

 

2015   Rev. Carl Davis, Ken-Gar Baptist Church

 

2014   David Fishback, Temple Member (King, Gandhi, Mandela: Giants of the 20^th Century, Beacons for the 21st)  https://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2018/05/temple-emanuel-jan-17-2014-king-gandhi.html

 

2013   Jonathan Jayes-Green (speaking in the context of the Maryland Dream Act and the Maryland Civil Marriage Equality Act)

 

2012   David Fishback, Temple Member (What Would Dr. King Occupy?)  http://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2016/01/what-would-dr-king-occupy.html 

 

2011   Solange Hansen, Temple Member (African-American recent convert to Judaism)

 

2010   Delegate Al Carr  (Al represents the District 16 (which includes the

Temple) in the General Assembly; he is a descendent of the enslaved-line of the Thomas Jefferson family)

 

2009   Bridget Bailey Lipscomb (The Joshua Generation in the Promised Land)  https://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2018/01/2009-mlk-service-at-temple-emanuel.html

 

2008   Temple Emanuel Teen Choir

 

2007   Patricia Corbett (Deputy Executive Director of Metro DC PFLAG)

 

2006   Delegate Herman Taylor (representative from District 14 (Olney/Sandy

            Spring/Ashton/Damascus/Burtonsville) in the General Assembly

 

2005   David Fishback, Temple Member (Theology, Morality & Faith: A Legacy of Dr. King) http://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2015/11/theology-morality-and-faith-legacy-of.html

 

2004   Ike Leggett (then a member of the Montgomery County Council

 

2003   KESTY (Kensington Temple Emanuel Youth Group)

 

2002   Temple Emanuel Rabbi Warren Stone, Rev. Carl Davis, Iman Faisal Khan (this service was in the aftermath of 9/11)

 

2001   LaRae Jackson (Baltimore VISTA Volunteer)

 

2000   Steve Silverman, Temple Member (member of the Montgomery County Council)

 

1999   David Fishback, Temple Member (Dr. King and the Second American Revolution) http://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2017/07/dr-king-and-second-american-revolution.html

1998   Fair Haven United Methodist Church Choir and Dr. William A. Phillips (1997 Nobel Prize Winner in Physics and longtime member of Fair Haven)

 

1997   Operation Understanding Executive Director

 

1996   Richard Montgomery High School Gospel Choir

 

1995, 1994, 1993  No featured speakers

 

1992   David Fishback, Temple Member and Member of the Montgomery County Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Committee (“King: Lessons for the Closing Decade of the Century”)

 

1990   Shirley Small Rougeau, Civil Rights Activist

 

1989   Rev. Alfred Moser

 

1988   Charles Morgan, Civil Rights Attorney

 

1987   Phineas Indritz, Temple Member and Civil Rights Lawyer 

Freedom Plaza Desecrated

Statue of Cesar Rodney now on Freedom Plaza in front of the National Place Building, former home of the Environmental Torts section of the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division

So the Trump Administration has now placed a previously-warehoused equestrian statue of Cesar Rodney, a minor Revolutionary War-era figure and major enslaver, at the center of a display on DC’s Freedom Plaza.

I find this disturbing, to say the least.

For 20 years, my DOJ office at National Place overlooked Freedom Plaza. I watched Inaugural Parades and 4th of July fireworks from that perch. The Plaza was the launch-point of so many expressions of popular First Amendment marches to the Capitol peacefully supporting causes of importance.

In 2001, my colleagues and I saw from our windows above Freedom Plaza the smoke from the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. And, ten years later, the Occupy DC encampment on the Plaza.

The Plaza has been a symbol of the inspiring parts of the American Experiment, as well as our efforts to form “a more perfect Union,” in the words of the preamble to the Constitution.

But now it is being desecrated, like so much of our Nation’s Capital. This morning, it reminded me of a 2012 presentation I gave at our synagogue’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Shabbat Service. I share it here in a blog entitled "What Would Dr. King Occupy?" I posted after one of the current president’s disturbing early campaign appearances.

1992 MLK Sermon at Temple Emanuel: King: Lessons for the Closing Decade of the Century

KING: LESSONS FOR THE CLOSING DECADE OF THE CENTURY

David Fishback 

Temple Emanuel, Kensington, MD 

January 17, 1992 

Most of us tend to think of the holiday celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., as a time to reflect on the time in our history when Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement forced America to examine itself closely to confront the simple fact that the principles upon which we belleved our country was founded were being ignored with respect to our citizens of African-American descent. 

The American Jewish Community vas particularly receptive to this message, not just because it evoked our ancient stories of slavery and freedom, but because Jevs in Europe vere always made to feel as outsiders, just as blacks vere in America. Our ancestors came to America so that they and their children and grandchildren would never again have to be outsiders, oppressed by undemocratic governments and hostile "host" cultures. For in America -- a "nation of immigrants", a "nation of nations" -- the Dream was that all peoples could belong, that no one need be an outsider. 

The Dream, of course, was imperfect, but the American Jewish experience taught us that, with every succeeding generation, the reality came closer to the theory. As we became comfortable in America, the glaring exception to the American Dream was finally confronted. 

I have been a citizen member of the Montgomery County Government's Martin Luther King Commemorative Committee since 1986. I applied for appointment to the Committee as an outgrowth of my work in anti-poverty programs in the late '60s, my experience as a VISTA Volunteer in Memphis the year after King's assassination, and my two years as co- president of the PTA of the Rosemary Hills magnet integration primary school. In preparation for my work on the Committee, I read several of Dr. King's books, written between 1956 and 1967. I had always thought of him as an essentially secular figure, using the church as simply an organizing base. But in delving into his writings and speeches, I learned that the religious basis of his vision vas deep and profound. 

Religion for Dr. King was not merely an organizing tool. Rather, it was the well-spring of a public morality which King saw as firmly rooted in, and springing from, the best Judeo-Christian traditions. He spoke with a religious voice, harkening to the words of the Old Testament prophets. "Let Justice well up as waters," he quoted from Amos (5:24), "and righteousness as a mighty stream. " Dr. King expressed not a religion of the rulers, but a religion of the masses: Speaking to power, condemning injustice, calling on an entire society to live up to the beliefs it held, but did not practice. 

He wove a vital synthesis of religious conviction and belief in American democratic principles. In a speech in 1961, Dr. King observed that "America is essentially a dream, a dream as yet unfulfilled. It is a dream where men of all races, of all nationalities and of all creeds can live together as brothers. The substance of the dream is expressed in these words, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' This is the dream. Ever since the Founding Fathers of our nation [King continued] dreamed this noble dream, America has been something of a schizophrenic society, tragically divided against herself. On the one hand we have proudly professed the principles of democracy, and on the other hand ve have sadly practiced the very antithesis of those principles." 

Unlike our prophets of ancient days, Dr. King went beyond words. He acted. He reminded us that "human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. No social advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitablity; it comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of dedicated individuals, who are willing to be co-workers with God." In a sermon the last year of his life, he explained that "time is neutral. It can be used either constructively or destructively. Without ... 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." In the end he was an optimist: "We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." 

This was all simply another way of stating the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam -- humankind's effort to repair the world. Just as we saw in the black struggle for equal rights a replaying of our own earlier struggles, Dr. King saw in the American Jewish community a model for black progress. In 1967, explaining the "social mobility and status attained by Jews in America, he wrote that, and these are his exact words: "Jews progressed because they possessed a tradition of education combined with social and political action. The Jewish family enthroned education and sacrificed to get it. The result was far more than abstract learning. Uniting social action vith educational competence, Jews became enormously effective in political life. Those Jews who became lawyers, businessmen, writers, entertainers, union leaders, and medical men did not vanish into the pursuits of their trade. They lived an active life in political circles, learning the techniques and arts of politics. Nor was it only the rich who were involved in social and political action. Millions of Jews for half a century remained relatively poor, but they were far from passive in socíal and political areas. They lived in homes in which politics was a household word. They were deeply involved in radical parties, liberal parties, and conservative parties -- they formed many of them. Very few Jews sank into despair and escapism, even when discrimination assailed the spirit and corroded initiative. Their life-raft in the sea of discouragement was social action." So said Dr. King. Rabbi Schindler or Al Vorspan or David Saperstein could not have described our American Jewish traditions better. Maybe, sometimes, we need to be reminded of our recent heritage. 

Dr. King did not minimize what he called the "towering differences "between the black and Jewish experiences, " but he instructed his community that "the lesson of Jewish mass involvement in social and political action and education is worthy of emulation. . . . We in this generation must do the work and in so doing it stimulate our children to learn and acquire higher levels of skill and technique." 

King understood clearly what enabled the American Jewish community to succeed; and he clearly understood what It would take, beyond the end of legal segregation, to enable the African American community to succeed. Lessons for all of us. 

In the end, Dr. King saw into the Promised Land, although he did not live to fully experience it. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 -- which set the norms that even the most conservative of presidential administrations in the 1980 essentially embraced -- were only beginning to bear fruit when he was gunned down just before Passover in 1968. Yet, King had known it would be a long process. In 1965, he said that "it is the keystone of my faith in the future that we will someday achieve a thoroughly integrated society. I believe that before the turn of the century, if trends continue to move and develop as presently, we vill have moved a long, long way toward such a society."

Unfortunately, those trends slowed and at times have had reversals. It is easy these days to see how far we need to go. We must, at the same time, remember how far we have come from what was, in the lifetimes of the adults here this evening, an apartheid structure in much of our country. 

I believe that the wisdom of celebrating Dr. King lies not just in his call for justice and democracy, but in the means by which he achieved it: the doctrine of militant non-violent direct action. The success of this approach enabled us to undergo what was truly a revolution with very little bloodshed. Yes, we have our martyrs, black and white, Christian and Jewish. But they died in circumstances which strengthened the Movement, and which caused a rotten system to shrivel up in a few short years. This was, in fact, the Second American Revolution. And it was a world revolution because it dealt with the exercise of power in a revolutionary context, in a completely new way. In 1967, Dr. King explained that: "Power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political or economic changes. In this sense, power is not only desirable, but necessary in order to Implement the demands of love and justice. One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love." 

The Second American Revolution was not only a revolution in the change it brought about, but in the way it brought about change. 

The Second American Revolution -- of which Dr. King was the most visible leader -- may well turn out to be as Important, or even more important, in its world-wide impact as in its impact within our borders. 

To understand the impact of this Second American Revolution, it is well to remember the impact of the First American Revolution. In our First Revolution, the fledgling democracy of the colonial experience expelled, by force of arms, monarchical control. What emerged was the first real democracy on a significant scale in the history of the human race. Even though it was flawed by the genocide of the Native American population and the existence of African slavery in the South, the message which went out to the rest of the world was that governments could, to quote Jefferson, be based upon "the consent of the governed." 

That message led to a century and a half of upheavals which ended in the establishment of freedom and democracy In the Western half of Europe and Japan. That message also led to the Gandhian Movement in India, which led to another expulsion of colonial rule and the creation of democracy in the most trying of circumstances. Gandhi added a new element to the formula: militant, mass non-violent direct action. And although the Indian Independence Movement was often overcome b y terrible violence, particularly during the partition, it was instructive to a young minister in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. 

By 1956, Dr. King was involved in intense discussions with two American disciples of Gandhi -- Bayard Rustin and Harris Wofford (yes, the same Harris Wofford who is now a Senator from Pennsylvania). In 1959, Dr. King traveled to India to learn more of Gandhi's impact: how his ideas were followed and how they were not. By the early 1960s, the strategy of militant non-violent resistance to injustice and oppression was being refined by Dr. King and his associates, bringing about the Second American Revolution: the turbulent, but relatively peaceful, end of American apartheid. 

So the ideas which began in the First American Revolution sung to Europe and Asia, where they were refined, and were sent back to America, where they sparked the Second American Revolution. The strategy of the Second American Revolution, in turn, spread back to the Eastern Hemisphere, as the historic events of the past few years have demonstrated. 

The success of King's adaptation led, in large part, to its adoption by the freedom movements of Eastern Europe and the Far East. The victorious non-violent massing of people opposing dictatorship and making it impossible for dictatorship to continue, was seen in Manila, Prague, East Berlin, and, finally, even in Moscow. Although it did not succeed in Beijing, it may rise again. It is not a coincidence that the Chinese erected a replica of the Statue of Liberty, and that, in the streets of Warsaw and Prague, the people sang "We Shall Overcome." 

Just as, at the Seder, we, as Jews, are admonished to retell to our children the story of the Exodus from Egypt, I believe that, at the King Holiday, we, as Americans, must retell to our children the story of our nation's internal Exodus from apartheid to equal rights. Both are stories of movement to freedom. While the first required flight from an oppressive society -- flight which we as Jews have been familiar with over the centuries -- the second tells perhaps an even more astounding story: a transformation of the oppressive society. In the Exodus from Egypt, Pharoah's "heart was hardened" after each plague. In the Exodus within America, Pharaoh was the entire white society, and ultimately its heart was softened and its soul vas changed by the non-violent demonstrations, the civil disobedience which forced the 20th Century Pharoah to itself be transformed. 

It would be wonderful if the American Exodus had already led to a Messianic Age. But it has not, just as the Egyptian Exodus did not. It took the Hebrew people 40 years in the desert to recover from slavery. It looks as though it may take American society a similar period of time - Into the next century --- to recover from slavery and apartheid. But this should not be cause for despair; that is the lesson we must learn from Dr. King: "The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards Justice." If we york for progress, we can achieve progress. If we work for a Messianic Age, we can continually improve our world, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. 

We, in America, face serious problems, some a residual of the American congenital defect (slavery and its consequences), some relating to a changing world economy. The people of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union face even greater problems, as they emerge from totalitarian rule, in trying to create, almost out of whole cloth, free democratic and economically functioning societies. But if we do not despair, if we are prepared to look our problems squarely in the face and find fair and practical solutions, we can continue to progress. And in succeeding, we will leave our children a better world. 

Dr. King described it well in his 1967 book Where De We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? 

"Some years ago [King wrote,] 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 líve 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." 

Shalom.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Shabbat at Temple Emanuel (MD), January 16, 2026

Temple Emanuel of Kensington MD held its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Shabbat on January 16, 2026.  Our Guest Speaker was Joshua Maxey, Executive Director of Bet Mishpachah and a member of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism.  

Josh's presentation was magnificent, and should be shared with as many people as possible. The introduction of Josh and his presentation may be found here.  The entire service may be found here.  For anyone not able to access the video link, pasted below is Josh's text, followed by the evening's program, including the readings.

January 16 2026 Service – Transcript of Speaker Joshua Maxey, Executive Director of Beth Mishpachah

Rabbi Adam –

It's my honor to invite back to the bimah Candace Groudine, who's going to introduce our special guest for the evening.

Candace Groudine –

Good evening.

David Fishback would be here where I'm standing, however, he's still recovering from a recent illness, and so he asked me to read his introduction of our guest speaker this evening, and so here I am.

I want to thank David, Rabbi Adam, Sandra Fleishman, and the entire staff of Temple Emanuel for all the hard work they've done to make this evening's event possible.

We are very fortunate to have as our speaker this evening Joshua Maxey.

His topic is None of Us Are Free Until All of Us Are Free. Intersectionality, Jewish Values, and the Ongoing Struggle for Justice.

Josh grew up in Rochester, New York, and is a 2015 graduate of St. Bonaventure University in Western New York.

Immediately drawn to community service, he moved to DC to work with Street Sense, which many of you may recognize as a newspaper written and distributed by homeless people in our nation's capital. He managed vendors and connected them with available social services.

Josh subsequently worked on the Hill, but found more satisfaction in engaging in direct action through the nonprofit sector. He next served with the Franciscan Mission Service.

In 2018, Josh became a member of Washington Hebrew Congregation, where he helped develop and continues to be active in that congregation's Racial Equity Committee.

In 2022, he was hired as the first executive director of Bet Mishpachah, DC's LGBTQ+ synagogue.

Josh works locally with the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington on outreach to diverse populations and discussions about how we can move forward in these turbulent times in which we find ourselves.

 And, as a member of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, he is plugged into the full range of issues facing the Jewish community nationally, including its relations with our allies and the struggles for social justice.

Joshua Maxey is an example of Dr. King's teaching that social advances come "through the tireless efforts and persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God."

This evening's speaker is such an individual.

Welcome to Temple Emanuel, Josh.

Joshua Maxey -

Shabbat Shalom.

It is truly an honor to be here with you all this evening as we gather for MLK Shabbat, and I want to thank Rabbi Adam.

To Candace, to David, who I know is watching on the livestream, and for the entire Social Justice Committee, thank you so much for your warm hospitality, inviting me here.

This evening, we gather in sacred time and in this sacred community, holding two inheritances, We inherit Shabbat: Our weekly declaration that every human being is entitled to rest, dignity, and freedom.

And we inherit the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A prophet of our modern age who reminded this nation that "justice delayed is justice denied."

MLK Shabbat is not only about memory, it's about moral accounting.  It asks us not only why, or what, rather, did Dr. King fight for.  But also, what does his unfinished work demand of us now, as Jews, as Americans, as human beings created Bezaleim Elohim, in the image of the Divine.

Tonight, I want to share briefly one core truth that stands on the heart of both Dr. King's theology and our Jewish tradition:  None of us are free until all of us are free.

This is not a slogan.  It is a worldview rooted in shared humanity. It is a moral claim about dignity.  And it is profoundly and deeply Jewish.

Dr. King understood something radical and essential.  Our freedom, all of our freedom, is interconnected.

He rejected the idea that one group could be liberated while others remain oppressed.

He rejected the comfort of partial justice.

He rejected the lie that freedom could be individualized.

In his Letter from the Birmingham Jail, he wrote words that we all know well, that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Judaism has taught this for thousands of years.

The Talmud reminds us "Kol Israel arevim zeh ba'zeh," that we are all responsible for one another.

The Torah teaches that liberation is never a solo journey.  God did not take us out of Egypt alone.  God took an entire people, a collective, out of bondage.

True freedom is shared freedom.

     If my neighbor's dignity is denied, then my own is diminished.

     If my neighbor is unsafe, then my safety, too, is fragile.

     If my neighbor is not free, then my freedom remains incomplete.  

When we speak about intersectionality, we are naming something very human. The reality that our identities overlap race, gender, class, disability, sexuality. And the systems that oppression often overlap.

Some hear the word intersectionality and assume it as a new phrase or a very divisive phrase. But Judaism has always understood that our humanity is complex.  And that dignity must be protected in that complexity.

Jewish identity itself has been intersectional.

      We are a religious people, and an ethnic people.

      We are Jews of Color, Mizrahi, Sephardi, Ashkenazi.

      We are immigrants.

      We are refugees.

      We are economically secure and economically precarious.

      We are queer and straight, disabled, able-bodied, Jews by birth, Jews by choice.

There is not, and never has been, just one Jewish experience.

Intersectionality simply calls us to live up to the mandate to honor the dignity of all people, especially those whose dignity is most often denied.

Dr. King understood this very well.  He did not fight racism alone.  He fought against poverty, against anti-Semitism, against economic exploitation, against militarism.

And even toward the end of his life, many former allies abandoned him not because he was wrong in his teaching, but because he insisted on the truth that dignity is indivisible.

I speak to you tonight not only as a leader in this community, but as someone whose life exists at multiple intersections.

As Candace mentioned, I serve as the Executive Director of Beit Mishpachah, which is DC's LGBTQ synagogue.

I'm a person of color, I am a gay man.

And I'm also a Jew by choice.

I chose Judaism because I found a home where I could fully be my authentic self.

I found a tradition that demands that I honor my own humanity and the humanity of others.

Leading a community that lives at so many different intersections, I see every day that dignity and inclusion are not abstract ideals. They are the very air that we breathe.

Over the years, with the support of local synagogues and organizations like Federation and the Commission, we've created many programs across the DMV that lifts up Jews of Color, not as a special category, but as an expression of truth, that Judaism is not a monolith. It is a beautiful mosaic. And to fail to honor that diversity is to violate human dignity.

Yet within our own Jewish spaces, too many voices still go unheard: people of color, LGBTQ members, people with different disabilities and abilities, and others often experience micro-aggressions, invisibility, or quiet assumptions about who belongs.

These experiences are not just personal. They reveal the places where our sacred spaces fall short of the values that we claim to uphold.

And beyond our synagogue walls and our Jewish institution walls the call to justice still continues. Just this past Tuesday, I stood at the Supreme Court in support of our trans siblings as the Court heard a case about transgender participation in sports.

I watched as a brave, young trans person stepped to the microphone and read their personal reflection.  And this person was probably around 12 years old.  And they read a poem of courage and truth, and in support of the community.

Moments later, an opposing speaker shouted, on a microphone, "Your existence is ridiculous!"

"Your existence is ridiculous."

Now, imagine being a child and hearing that. Imagine how crushing that is.

Moments like this remind me why this work is so urgent. We must uphold human dignity. Always. And we must do so across difference, grounded in our shared humanity.

That is why solidarity beyond our community also is not optional.  Interfaith partnerships and alliances are essential for justice.

As one of the readings reminded us today, we must recommit ourselves to strengthen our bonds with those who share our values.

I often hear in circles when we talk about building communities and building relationships with other communities, that we as Jews should focus on ourselves first, secure our own safety.  And then we'll worry about others after.

And given our history as a people, that impulse I can understand. But Jewish tradition is unequivocal. Trauma does not cancel human dignity.

The Torah commands us, "You shall not oppress the stranger, for you know the soul of the stranger."

And as Dr. King warned us, silence in the face of injustice -- the appalling silence, as he described, of the good people -- is always a failure of dignity.

And Shabbat itself is an embodied form of justice. It insists that economic status does not determine who rests, that authority does not exempt anyone from obligation, and that care extends beyond humans to all living beings.

Shabbat teaches us that worth is not earned, that dignity is not conditional, and that humanity is not transactional.

Dr. King's vision was ultimately rooted in hope.

We read earlier where he said, we are simply seeking to bring into full realization the American dream. A land where everyone will respect the dignity and worth of human personality.

And yet, he reminded us that this journey to the Land of Promise is far from finished.

Even in his final days, Dr. King refused despair. He said, "I will not yield to a politics of despair God grant that we will be that David of Truth set out against the Goliath of Injustice."

As we honor and go through Shabbat, I invite us to sit with a few questions:

• Where am I being called to see and honor the dignity of every person, especially those whose voices are often unheard?  
• How can our Jewish spaces more fully live out shared humanity and inclusion?
• Where in our broader communities are we called to stand in solidarity, even when the stwhen the struggle does not directly touch us?  

If our humanity is shared, then our responsibility is shared.

If dignity is sacred, then justice is truly non-negotiable.

May we be brave enough to resist the comfort of partial justice.

May we honor the divine image in every human being.

And may we live the truth taught by both Dr. King and our Jewish tradition that none of us are free until we all are free.

Shabbat Shalom.

Rabbi Adam –

Thank you, Joshua, for your wise and inspiring words. 

 

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., COMMEMORATIVE SHABBAT SERVICE

 

TEMPLE EMANUEL, JANUARY 16, 2026

 

None of US Are Free Until All of Us Are Free:

 Intersectionality, Jewish Values, and the Ongoing Struggle for Justice

 

Officiants:  Rabbi Adam Rosenwasser and Cantor Lauren Adesnik

 

Candle Blessings:  Alex Clay and Neel Goldberg

 

Readers:  Aaron Northern, Sue Berman, Candace Groudine, and Ian DeWaal

 

Introduction of Guest Speaker:   Candace Groudine

 

Guest Speaker:  Joshua Maxey, Executive Director of Bet Mishpachah and member of the

Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism

 

Board Representative:  Julie Ross

 

(Thank you to Temple Members David Fishback and Sandra Fleishman who helped prepare the materials for this Service.)

 

Readings

 

Here at Temple Emanuel, we display with pride the iconic photograph of Dr. King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel at the Selma March which led to the enactment of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965. Rabbi Heschel was Dr. King's great ally and a scholar of the Jewish Prophetic Tradition, and he reminded us that the "prophet was an individual who said 'No' to his society, condemning its habits and assumptions, its complacency. The purpose of prophecy is to conquer callousness, to change the inner man as well as to revolutionize history."

 

In the spirit of Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel, this evening is a time to recommit ourselves to work against the related challenges of white supremacy and anti-semitism, including efforts by those in power to judicially destroy the Voting Rights Act.  We also must recommit ourselves to strengthen our bonds with those who share our values. While this particular moment is fraught with legitimate concerns that the American Experiment is being destroyed, we must, like Dr. King, strive to make it work.

 

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

 

Dr. King explained 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 [people] no longer argue that the color of a [person's] skin determines the content of [their] character; the dream of a land where every[one] 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" and everyone "will know that America is truly the land of the free and the home of the brave."

 

We also remember that the journey to this Land of Promise is far from finished, and that there are powerful forces intent on destroying so much of the progress we have made since Dr. King’s time.         

 

Just days before his assassination in 1968, just two months before the Poor People's Campaign March on Washington, Dr. King, in a sermon just a few miles from where we sit tonight, proclaimed, "I will not yield to a politic of despair. I'm going to maintain hope.... God grant that we will be that David of truth set out against the Goliath of injustice, the Goliath of neglect, the Goliath of refusing to deal with the problems, and go on with the determination to make America the truly great America that it is called to be."

 

CONGREGATION:

Let us learn in order to teach.

Let us learn in order to do.

For information on past MLK Services at Temple Emanuel, see here.

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove Seeks to Open an Important Discussion in the American Jewish Community

Last spring, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove sparked the attacks by a number of rabbis on then-New York City mayoral candidate  Zohran Mamdani.  I found those attacks misguided and was disappointed that they missed the opportunity, recognized by New York City Jewish politicians like Brad Lander, to reach out to potential friends.  Sadly, in the wake of the election, there are continuing attacks from groups like the Anti-Defamation League to undercut alliances with Mamdani, rather than to find common ground.

But, fortunately, a few days ago Rabbi Cosgrove gave a speech recognizing that the American Jewish community needs to reassess how it deals with the current reality created since the right-wing takeover of the State of Israel, a reality which is at odds with fundamental principles of Judaism held by so many American Jews.

 

I recommend reading the entire speech.  I do not agree with everything in it, but I applaud the effort to open up the discussion we need.  This excerpt shows that Rabbi Cosgrove understands the challenges we face:

 

"[W]e have the nerve to send that kid to a college campus expecting her to defend the policies of a government that does not reflect her values or recognize her Judaism as Judaism. I myself may be constitutionally incapable of walking away from Israel, but others have and will continue do so – before October 7th and all the more since. There is a limit to the self-flagellating exercise of supporting a state that neither recognizes you nor represents your values. For the coming generation of American Jewry, the loyalties of yesteryear will no longer suffice.

 

"And of all the points of difference between the 'civil religion' of American Jewry and the reality of Israel, none loom as large as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. For the post-Shoah generation of American Jewish leadership, Israel’s claim to the land and need for a sovereign state were obvious, a simple matter of survival.

"In the first decades of Israel’s existence, persistent Arab hostilities sidelined any concerns American Jewry might have harbored about the democratic rights of the indigenous Palestinian population. The facts didn’t help.

"Arabs had long rejected any Jewish claim to the land, and mainstream American Jewry paid little attention to Palestinian aspirations to nationhood, focusing instead on the pressing needs of the Jewish people. Expressions of concern for the Palestinians and the conditions they lived in were beyond the bounds of Jewish communal discussions.

"But the past fifty-plus years of Israeli settlement expansion have radically changed the facts on the ground and American Jewry’s perception of Israel as a Jewish and a democratic nation. Whether American Jews know about, or care to understand, the events leading up to the Six-Day War, through which Israel gained control of the territories known as the West Bank, matters little.

"What matters is that Israel continues to occupy the territories. Whatever justifications (theological, historical, security, or otherwise) have been and continue to be marshaled in support of Israel’s ongoing presence there, in the eyes of American Jewry, the West Bank settlements and the illiberal policies they represent pose a threat to Israel’s founding promise – its commitment to democracy."

The challenge is how the Diaspora responds to a Jewish State which is hell-bent on disregarding what I believe most of us see as the essential provision of the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence:  

"The state of Israel will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on precepts of liberty, justice, and peace taught by the Hebrew prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizns without distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of shrines and holy places of all religions; and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."

I hope we are up to the challenge.

 

 

The Gates of Gaza by Amir Tibon

I just finished reading The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival and Hope in Israel's Borderlands by Amir Tibon.  Tibon is a writer for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, who lived with his wife Miri and two young children in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, which was attacked by Hamas on October 7, 2023.  He chronicles the horror of the attack and the bravery in response.  These chronicles are interspersed with descriptions of what led up to October 7, including the conduct of Benyamin Netanyahu and his allies, which, in Tibon's informed telling of the history, contributed so much to the tragedy.  The book also provides insights into the larger dilemmas that those living in the region face, reaching back to the creation of Israel in 1948.

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The title of the book comes from the title of the 1956 eulogy presented by Moishe Dayan at the funeral of Roi Rutberg, the security chief of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, who was ambushed by Palestinians who had crossed the border:

"Early yesterday morning, Roi was murdered. The quiet of the spring morning dazzled him, and he did not see those waiting in ambush at the edge of the furrow. . . .  Let us not cast the blame on the murderers. Why should we question their burning hatred for us? For eight years, they have been sitting in the refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes, we have been transforming the lands and the villages, where they and their fathers dwelt, into our estate."

Dayan did not use this rare recognition from a high-ranking Israeli government official of the price paid by the Palestinians in 1948 (and thereafter) as a plea to find a way to peace.  Rather, Dayan concluded that the "young Roi who left Tel Aviv to build his home at the gates of Gaza, to be a wall for us, was blinded by the light in his heart and he did not see the flash of the sword.  The yearning for peace deafened his ears and he did not hear the voice of murder waiting in ambush.  The gates of Gaza weighed too heavily on his shoulders, and overcame him." pp. 27-28.

Tibon goes on to report that in "Nahal Oz, not everyone liked the speech.  Some of the young kibbutzniks found it too dark.  They wanted to believe that one day, maybe in the distant future, there would be peace between their community and the communities in Gaza." (p. 28)

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At the end of the book, Tibon relates his visit, some months after October 7, to the Nahal Oz's cemetery.  He says that as "an Israeli citizen, I supported the war effort, at least in the early months of the fighting.  I was angry over what Hamas had done and scared of how Israeli weakness in the face of that attack would be perceived by our other adversaries in the region.  But as a human being, I find it extremely difficult to countenance the level of destruction caused by my own country inside Gaza.  And as a resident of Nahal Oz who still holds out hope that my family will one day be able to return here, I have to ask myself what will result from all this violence -- peace and quiet or more violence?" (p. 288-289)

Tibon concludes by hearkening back to Dayan's 1956 eulogy for Roi Rutberg -- and the reaction to it (both then and now) from so many people of Nahal Oz:

"They had come to build their homes on the border knowing that war might interrupt their lives at any moment -- but they had never seen conflict as an inevitability.  They wanted to believe that one day, there could be peace with the people on the other side.  Some of them still believe it, even after everything that happened on October 7 and its aftermath.

"Gaza's gates still weigh on our country, as heavily as if Dayan had delivered his speech only yesterday.  But as I walk out of the cemetery, I realize that there's more to the story.  These gates don't just weigh on our shoulders, as Dayan said back then; in the years and decades to come, they will weigh even more heavily on our souls." (p. 290)

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I could end this blogpost now, but I want to note that I found particularly striking two very personal passages from Tibon.  

The first describes the November 2021 rise of the Netanyahu/Ben-Gvir-Smotrich coalition:

"Netanyahu and his Far Right, ultrareligious partners returned to power with a stable majority.  For the first time since his criminal trial began three years earlier, he had decisively won an election.

"On election night, Netanyahu announced that he intended to lead a 'fully right-wing coalition,' consisting of Likud, two ultrareligious parties, and a new party led by Ben-Gvir, which had won fourteen seats -- an all-time high for the Israeli Far Right.  This unprecedented result was an even greater shock than Netanyahu's return to power.

"The next morning, for the first time since we'd moved to Nahal Oz, Miri and I spoke about the possibility of leaving -- the kibbutz, and perhaps even the country -- for good. We were scared of what this new, extremist government would bring and the kind of future that our daughters would have in a country where a man like Ben-Gvir could hold power."  (p. 235)

[From afar, three years earlier in 2018, I expressed similar concerns after an earlier Netanyahu coalition enacted the "nation-state" bill, which, I believed, had put Israel on a potentially fatal path.  

[And the fears I had were even greater by early 2023.]

In the second, in late July 2023, Tibon recalls that hours after the Netanyahu Government convinced the Knesset to enact a bill which started the process of dismantling the Israeli judicial system, he met a close friend and neighbor "while we were both walking our dogs in the neighborhood.  He looked devastated. 'We've taken our children onto a ship, and now it's out in the deep ocean, and the captain is drunk,' he told me, in an attempt to explain his feelings. 'I want to get my children off the ship. And I'm scared that it might be too late."  (p. 247)

A little more than three months later, on October 7, Kibbutz Nahal Oz was overrun.  

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So where do we go from here?  What is the future?  As we grapple with these unavoidable questions,  reading The Gates of Gaza is essential.  It also might be useful to read the words of the late Leonard Fein, who made up this story after the Six Day War, but before the First Intifada.  And maybe this short 2021 letter to The Washington Jewish Week, as well.