This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. Sixty years ago today, activists descended on the nation’s capitol for the March on Washington. On Saturday, a new generation of social justice leaders recreated their steps. Here, three of our best stories reflecting on the significance of the iconic original march today:
Clarence Jones helped MLK write ‘I Have a Dream.’ He’s still fighting for Blacks — and Jews. Jones, 92, was a member of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s inner circle, and spoke at Saturday’s march. In the days before, he spoke with our editor-at-large Robin Washington about the ways in which the fates of Black and Jewish people in the U.S. continue to be linked, and the deep impression that the Jews active in the civil rights movement made on him. “When I die, I’m coming back Jewish,” he said. Read the story ➤ By bus and train and plane — and ‘Aunt Bessie’ — a Jewish activist brought 250,000 to march. Robin also spoke with Rachelle Horowitz, who, at 24, served as a deputy to the 1963 March on Washington’s primary organizer, Bayard Rustin. Horowitz, now 84 and the retired political director of the American Federation of Teachers, recalled her efforts to bring 250,000 participants to the march, and the one speech she wished history had paid greater attention to: that of Rabbi Joachim Prinz, who “gave one of the best speeches of the march.” Read the story ➤ Sixty years later, a Jewish volunteer at the March on Washington remembers ‘the most peaceful of days.’ Harry Burg, 82, was motivated to volunteer at the March on Washington in part because of the legacy of the Holocaust. “I did not want to live in a country that discriminated on the basis of characteristics with which we were born,” he told our reporter Louis Keene. “Coming out of that World War II experience as a kid, seeing people mourning with Kaddish because their relatives had been lost, all of that made an impact.” Read the story ➤ Plus … • In 2013, the Forward spoke with the descendants of Jewish participants in the original March on Washington to mark its 50th anniversary. • That same year, we took a dive through our archives to revisit how the Forward covered the march at the time. |
Jacksonville police respond to a 2018 mass shooting. A white man in his 20s shot and killed three Black victims at a Dollar General in the city Saturday in what police described a racist attack. (Getty Images) |
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
(Courtesy of Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram) |
⚖️ A panel ruled that a Jewish Tennessee couple can move forward with a discrimination lawsuit against a state-funded adoption agency. Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram, whom the Forward profiled last year, are challenging a state law that lets private adoption agencies refuse to work with families based on “religious or moral convictions.” (JTA) ? A Kansas City farmer’s market suspended a vendor over its owner’s antisemitic social media presence. One post offered a 14.88% discount — invoking two numbers commonly used as dog whistles by white supremacists and neo-Nazis — and the vendor responded to his suspension by praising Hitler. (KCUR) ? A German politician denied claims that he authored and distributed an antisemitic flyer as a teenager. Hubert Aiwanger, deputy premier of Bavaria, is facing an October election; multiple opposing political parties demanded that he step down if the allegations are true. (Reuters) ? European officials facing controversy over antisemitism, part two: An Italian regional official wrote a rock song that praised terror attacks against Israelis and described Jews as a “race of merchants.” Marcello de Angelis, a Rome-based politician and close ally of Italy’s far-right prime minister Giorgia Meloni, was revealed as the author of the 1995 song — for a band with which he was performing as late as 2020. (Haaretz) ❗ European officials facing controversy over antisemitism, part three: A former top judge on the European Court of Human Rights was revealed to have an extensive history of antisemitic social media posts, including claims that Jews are “the central enemies of Western civilization.” Bostjan Zupancic, who left the court in 2016 and was its longest-serving justice, has also served as vice president of the U.N. Committee Against Torture. (Jewish Chronicle) ? The Russian newspaper Pravda published an op-ed claiming that Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy is using the war as revenge on Ukrainians for pogroms. The op-ed shared a conspiracy theory suggesting that Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, is sending ethnic Ukrainians to the front line in hopes that they will be killed en masse as payback for past pogroms against Jews in the country. (Times of Israel) Shiva call ➤ Actress Arleen Sorkin, famous for her role on the soap opera Days of Our Lives, died at 67. What else we’re reading ➤ “The Jewish grandmother who believes she is a daughter of an Arab king” … How a 1983 summer camp basketball game helped fight antisemitism … “What it’s really like being a Black Jewish woman.” |
Marvel comics on display at Midtown Comics in New York on Aug. 31, 2009. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images) |
On this day in history (1917): Jack Kirby, the groundbreaking Jewish comics artist who helped develop characters like the Incredible Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and, most famously, Captain America, was born. Kirby, born Jacob Kurtzberg, often incorporated Jewish themes and history into his work, particularly in his focus on villains affiliated with the Nazis: “Kirby’s bad guys were often fascists rather than criminals or lunatics, like the Red Skull and Doctor Doom,” Roy Schwartz wrote in a 2022 story for the Forward. |
Couldn’t attend Saturday’s March on Washington? Stream the highlights, including remarks by Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the Anti-Defamation League, here. — Thanks to Benyamin Cohen, Beth Harpaz and Rebecca Salzhauer for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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