I was delighted to read “Cornel West Trumpeting Heschel’s Prophetic Vision,” Jan. 25.
On the first weekend in January, honoring both Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s 40th yahrtzeit and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, Mishkan Shalom Congregation in Philadelphia, with The Shalom Center as co-sponsor, held a “Heschel-King Festival” with Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun (a student of Rabbi Heschel), Vincent Harding (close friend and speechwriter for Rev. King) and Dorothy Cotton (Rev. King’s friend and director of education for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) as major speakers. There was also a multiracial choir, “Bible Rap,” a film on Heschel, and photos of Rev. King and Rabbi Heschel in spiritually rooted activist work against the Vietnam War.
Director, The Shalom Center Philadelphia
