Civil Rights and Jewish Responsibility

By Audra E. Latham and Jo-Ellen Unger

Edmund Pettus Bridge, March 1965 ~ 600 Civil Rights marchers gather in Selma, Alabama with plans to walk to Montgomery, protesting unequal voting rights. The march turns bloody when they are stopped at the bottom of the bridge and violently attacked by local police. Two weeks later, with the support of the courts and police escorts, over 8,000 peaceful demonstrators, led by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. marched across the bridge and walked the more than 50 miles from Selma to Montgomery.

Edmund Pettus Bridge, February 2011 ~ 13 junior and senior high school students from Congregation Ahavath Chesed (The Temple) walk across the bridge, arm-in-arm, watching the sunset and singing songs of freedom. At Havdallah, held under the Bridge, the flame from the twisted candle symbolized our hope that the future will be brighter than we can even imagine.

While some teens have yet to find their Jewish identity post-B'nei Mitzvah, or Confirmation, Temple’s M'china (Preparation) program allows our students to connect deeply and Jewishly to Temple, to each other and to the greater community.

This year’s curriculum focuses on the Civil Rights Movement. This piece of American history has challenged them to understand injustice, to identify what is meaningful in life and to develop the confidence and skills to stand up for what is important in their lives and in the lives of those around them.

Our trip began inMontgomery at the Dexter King Memorial Baptist Church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. began his career, as a small-town preacher. At the Montgomery Bus Boycott exhibit at the Rosa Parks Museum, her words and actions never rang truer: “Each person must live their life as a model for others.” At the Southern Poverty Law Center, many of our students pledged to take a stand against hate and work for justice and tolerance in their daily lives.

In Selma, we had lunch with a founder of the National Voting Rights Museum, who recounted first hand the marches and moments of the movement. At the Civil Rights Institute we compared black and white classrooms, water fountains and bathrooms. The students sat transfixed as they listened to Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. It is as powerful today, as the day he delivered it. Many students asked difficult and insightful questions, as they struggled to understand the roots of racism and discrimination, violence and hatred.

Our students always say it best. On the day we returned, we received a text from Arielle Darvin, “I wasn’t sure if it was just going to be a bunch of boring museums, but I came away from the trip feeling like I’ve learned so much valuable information. I know I have been given a new perspective on civil rights and on life. Thank you again for making the trip so much fun and meaningful. I will never forget this experience.”

As its name suggests, M'china is preparation for life beyond high school and we could not be more proud of our students. They teach us, as we teach them.

For more information about M'china, or any of Temple's educational programming please contact us at 733-7078 or learning@thetemplejacksonville.org.