Two major Jewish organizations are currently seeking assurances from the leaders of the 20th anniversary celebration of Martin Luther King’s historic "I have a dream" speech that the event will not be used as a forum for expression of anti-Israel sentiment.
A number of other Jewish organizations that have traditionally been at the forefront of the civil rights movement have decided not to endorse the August 27 commemorative march in Washington, D.C. because of what they consider to be the anti-Israel position of some of the rally’s sponsors. They also object to parts of the rally’s platform, which they feel would lead to a distortion of the purpose of the event. The groups object as well to the scheduling of the march for Saturday.
A spokesman for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that his organization was assured by the leadership of the march that "anti-Israel rhetoric will not take place" at the event. If any such rhetoric is expressed, the spokesman continued, the leadership promised to "disavow" it.
The spokesman explained that the UAHC was now "negotiating the (content of the) official position papers" of the event. He added, however, that barring "overt anti-Semitic sentiment," the UAHC is endorsing the march because "we feel the risks involved are not worth pulling out" from the event. He also stressed that the UAHC "is not encouraging" its members to march "because of the conflict with Shabbat." Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the UAHC, is a co-convenor of the event.
The American Jewish Congress is working with the UAHC "to negotiate certain commitments" from the march leadership, an AJCongress spokesman said, but its decision on whether or not to endorse the march will depend on the outcome of these negotiations, the spokesman added.
The leadership includes co-chairpersons Coretta Scott King, widow of the slain civil rights leader; Dr. Benjamin Hooks, executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Dr. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Judy Goldsmith, president of the National Organization for Women; and Rep. Walter Fauntroy(D. District of Columbia), the national director of the event.
The march is being publicized as a "New Coalition of Conscience" that will boast a platform of "jobs, peace and freedom."
The JTA contacted the offices of Hooks in New York, Fauntroy in Washington and Mrs. King in Atlanta, but was told that they were unavailable for immediate comment. A spokesman for the Martin Luther King Center for Social Change in Atlanta, which Mrs. King heads, read a statement issued ear lier by Mrs. King: "I hope the Jewish community and Jewish leaders will support the march. The march, and what it represents, is so much greater than whatever individual differences we may have."
REASONS FOR NOT ENDORSING THE EVENT
The Jewish groups that have decided not to endorse the event noted several reasons for their decision. Most cited a specific clause in "A Call to the Nation" issued by the march organizers, which says: "We oppose the militarization of internal conflicts, often abetted and even encouraged by massive U.S. arms exports, in areas of the world such as the Middle East and Central America, while their basic human problems are neglected."
Nathan Perlmutter, national director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, said, "In view of Israel being a recipient of some of these ‘massive arms,’ the message is clear: we do not belong in this march."
He added that "by bringing in a number of political issues" to the rally’s platform "not directly related to civil rights," the event was being "diluted" and "politicized." Perlmutter said he saw "absolutely no purpose (in joining) in an event that has so broadened its agenda, even reaching so far as the Middle East. They are working far afield."
Donald Feldstein, executive vice president of the American Jewish Committee, said that the "’call for a New Coalition of Conscience’ consists of a hodgepodge of controversial national and international issues quite unrelated to the central civil rights goals that unite most Americans of good will."
He explained that "the AJCommittee and most other Jewish groups have no official position on many of these issues; but there is evidence of considerable pressure to have the march endorse extreme positions on many of them — including, it is feared, implied condemnation of Israel and support for the PLO."
A spokesman for the American Section of the World Zionist Organization, which is also not endorsing the march, cited nuclear disarmament and Central America as issues which have "no connection with the civil rights objectives which we share."
The Jewish War Veterans, who originally endorsed the march, withdrew its sponsorship in June because of the issues "unrelated to civil rights" that it felt "distort the original purposes" of the event, according to a spokesman.
OBJECTION TO SOME OF THE SPONSORS
The JWV and the other groups also objected to certain sponsors of the march who have been associated with anti-Semitic or anti-Israel statements. Those most often mentioned were Rev. Jesse Jackson and former Senator James Abourezk, who is now chairman of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
"I do not wish to literally or figuratively march side by side" with those people, said Perlmutter.
"Too many of those in the line march to the sound of a different drummer that grates on the message of the Reverend King’s immortal ‘I have a dream’ vision," said Bernice Tannenbaum, chairman of the WZO American Section.
A spokesman for the WZO cited a list of several other "Communist and pro-PLO" sponsors of the event to whom the Jewish groups object. The groups were identified as the People’s School for Marxist Studies, which has hosted PLO officials in this country; Jewish Affairs, a publication of the Communist Party; the United States Peace Council; Pax-Christi; Women for Racial and Economic Equality; and the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression. The WZO spokesman also noted that Lowery and Fauntroy have organized pro-PLO conferences and anti-Israel rallies.
Feldstein said this New Coalition could "only undermine" the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, "for decades the most effective coalition of Blacks, Jews, labor and other supporters" of the civil rights agenda.
Besides their opposition to the current agenda and some of the new leaders of the march, the Jewish groups objected to the scheduling of the event for the Sabbath. Feldstein called it "insensitively scheduled" and Tannenbaum agreed that it was "thoughtlessly" planned.
STRESS COMMITMENT TO ORIGINAL CIVIL RIGHTS AIMS
At the same time, however, the Jewish leaders stressed their continued commitment to the original civil rights objectives, and many are endorsing other events scheduled for the week of the rally in commemoration of the original march.
A spokesman for the AJCommittee said that his organization was "recommending local events be held to underscore our commitment to complete the unfinished civil rights agenda." The JWV spokesperson said her organization "still endorses the agenda of Martin Luther King and will continue to work" towards his goals.
The National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC), which is an umbrella coordinating body, is "taking no position in regard to the march," according to Charney Bromberg, associate director. "Because there was a division among the members," which include UAHC, the NJCRAC has "no power to take a position," he said. He added that many of its members were planning other forms of commemoration of the historic march.
OTHER PROGRAMS PLANNED
The Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington is planning a week-long series of programs, including sponsoring a television show about the civil rights movement, showing an ADL film about Martin Luther King, encouraging rabbis to give Sabbath sermons about the issues of civil rights, urging people to plant trees in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Forest in Israel, and sponsoring a discussion about the 1983 congressional legislative agenda as it pertains to the area of civil rights. The events are staged in conjunction with the Washington offices of the ADL and the AJCongress.
The AJCommittee has issued a booklet entitled "The Moral Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr." by Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, national interreligious affairs director of the Committee, as part of its commemoration of the march.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
