From Rabbi Stephanie Alexander…
We hope you will be inspired to join us for anything that piques your interest or ignites your imagination, for, while these activities do, we believe, sustain the Jewish soul, the spirit soars even higher when they are performed in a community. We look forward to welcoming you with open arms.
50 years ago, the march from Selma to Montgomery took place to push for voting rights for all U.S. citizens. A month and a half ago, my family joined dozens of other students of history as we reenacted the first powerful steps of that march across the Edmund Petus Bridge. Just two days later, in the wake of gunshots that still echo within the walls of Mother Emanuel AME Church and the streets of our city, we were painfully reminded that the pursuit of civil rights is not relegated to history. And so, beginning on August 1, we march again.
This past month, the NAACP, in conjunction with labor, civil rights, environmental justice, educational, and faith-based communities, called for the formation of a broad coalition to march from Selma to Washington, D.C., under the banner “Our Lives, Our Votes, Our Jobs, and Our Schools Matter” – and the Reform Movement, as we did 50 years ago during Freedom Summer – has answered the call. At least one Reform rabbi, in some cases as many as four or more, will march every day of America’s Journey for Justice. And instead of “passing a baton” from colleague to colleague, we will carry a sacred Torah scroll the entire length of the journey. As the leaders of our movement have written, “Our sefer Torah that teaches of our 40 year journey through the wilderness will accompany us on this 40 day journey for the justice our Torah demands.”
But it need not be only rabbis who participate and we hope it will be so many more. I have been assigned to be the Shomer Torah (guardian of the Torah) on Tuesday, August 25. Will you join me? Will you invite others – fellow members of KKBE? Others from the larger Jewish community? Your friends and neighbors of any congregation or background? I would love nothing more than to place the scroll in your arms as it makes its way across our state of South Carolina, all of us helping to bring attention to the racial and structural inequality its text demands we address.
Plans are still very fluid. It looks that our leg of the journey will be somewhere between Spartanburg, SC and Charlotte, NC. The march will cover 18-20 miles that day, though it is not anticipated that anyone will actually walk the full daily mileage. There will be buses with restrooms, lunches, and space for air-conditioned respite accompanying us along the journey. A teach-in will take place in the evening and dinner will be provided. Sleeping arrangements, for those who want to spend the night before or after our day of the march, will be available in houses of worship along the way. But as there are still so many more details to fall into place, here’s what we ask: If you’re interested in participating, contact Irene in our temple office with your email address and the number/names of those interested in joining you, and as we learn more we will be in touch.
Friends, we will always know the summer of 2015 as a summer of tragedy, but maybe – with our energy, effort and commitment – it can become known as Justice Summer, as well. Are you in?
L’shalom,
Rabbi Stephanie M. Alexander
From Rabbi Stephanie Alexander…