Everett Gendler (1928-) was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1957 and spent most of his rabbinic career as Rabbi of Temple Emanuel of the Merrimack Valley (Lowell, Mass.) and as Jewish chaplain of Phillips Academy (Andover, Mass.). But he is best known for his social-justice work. Most significantly for this introduction, Gendler played a pivotal role in involving American Jews in the civil-rights movement, leading groups of American rabbis to participate in prayer vigils and protests in Albany, Ga. (1962), Birmingham, Ala. (1963), and Selma, Ala. (1965), as well as facilitating Abraham Joshua Heschel’s participation in the famous march from Selma to Montgomery (1965).
In the letter below, Gendler expresses gratitude to Mordecai Kaplan for his role in convincing the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative Judaism) to support the ongoing campaign to desegregate Birmingham by sending a delegation of rabbis to the city in its name. Kaplan’s role in this is generally unknown, and is a good example of how he contributed significantly to the fight for social justice through words rather than overt political action.
The 63rd Annual Convention of the Rabbinical Assembly (RA) took place at the Pioneer Country Club, Greenfield Park, N.Y., from May 5-9, 1963. In a letter dated Jan. 18, 1963, also available in the Reconstructionist Archives of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Rabbi Gendler invited Kaplan to speak at the convention on the topic of “Judaism and Modern War.” Kaplan delivered the talk, by then titled “Wage Peace Or … ,” at the evening session on Monday (May 6). In it, Kaplan argued that in a nuclear age “when international peace has come to be the only alternative to universal annihilation,” religion must prove its worth by “stop[ping] [to] mouth[] the fine platitudes about the love of God and of man and demonstrate by deeds that it is passionately concerned that an end be put to all war. It must wage peace.” To this end, he suggested that “the Rabbinical Assembly should appeal to the religious bodies of the world to call into being a World Parliament of Religions, which might show by what means peace on earth might finally be established.” Kaplan was pleased with the session, noting in his diary that “even the discussion from the floor was to the point.” The RA passed a resolution committing itself to pursue a World Parliament of Religions.
The next morning’s (Tuesday) programming began with a session focused on Harold Schulweis’ paper, “The Bias Against Man,” in which he called upon the RA to support the work of the Institute for Righteous Acts (now the Jewish Foundation for Righteous Acts), which he had just established. This institute would both celebrate the actions of non-Jews in Europe who rescued Jews during the Holocaust and probe the motivations behind their deeds. The work of the institute was essential, in Schulweis’ view, because the current focus on perpetrators risked “destroying hope” in humanity’s “capacity for decency.” Moreover, the “world needs heroes whose altruism is lived out in action; models of exemplary behavior who realize our abstract ideals, human beings to be emulated.” Schulweis also lamented the fact that the “behavioral sciences have long studied the bigot” while neglecting to study empirically “the altruistic personality,” thereby losing the insights that could be gained through such study about how to train “moral character” and transmit “positive moral traits.” In the paper that followed, Dr. Perry London, who was engaged by the institute to study the motivations of Holocaust rescuers, echoed Schulweis’ dissatisfaction with the state of the behavioral sciences, adding that “we seem to understand why Southern Whites oppress and segregate the Negroes there, but we never seek to understand as well, or even ask, why Freedom Riders ride.”
In the discussion that ensued, Rabbi Bernard Mandelbaum, provost of the Jewish Theological Seminary at the time, lauded London’s interest in probing the actions of civil-rights activists (“Maybe the first thing we ought to do is find out why Everett Gendler and Lloyd Tannenbaum did go to Albany, Georgia, and why the rest of us did nothing”). He also wondered how it was possible for the gathered rabbis to reiterate time and time again the need not to be silent in response to evil, while “we have been meeting for three days, after seeing the newspaper pictures of Birmingham on Sunday, and have remained silent?”
The newspaper reports from Birmingham were indeed very troubling. On April 3, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) he led began a campaign of sit-ins, demonstrations, pickets and boycotts to desegregate what King called “the most segregated city in America.” The (SCLC) ignored a municipal judge’s order to end the campaign and planned a march for the Good Friday and Easter Monday weekend. King and 50 of his associates were arrested on Good Friday (April 13) for parading without a permit. Soon after, King wrote his legendary, “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” in which he expressed disappointment with white moderates who, because of their number and their greater devotion “to ‘order’ than to justice,” were more of a “stumbling block” in the Negro “stride toward freedom” than were the “White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner.”
Released from prison on April 20, King was faced with a depleted campaign. Eugene “Bull” Connor, the city’s police commissioner and a fierce segregationist, had arrested hundreds of King’s supporters, and there were not enough people or funds left to continue the battle. The decision was taken to enlist school-aged children and youth in the campaign. More than a thousand marched on May 2, and more than 900 were arrested. An additional 1,000 students marched the following day and, on Connor’s order, were attacked by dogs and high-pressure water cannons. A stunned world reacted in rage to the footage coming from Birmingham. Unrest continued on May 7, when Mandelbaum made his remarks.
A number of rabbis were moved to act by Mandelbaum’s comments and asked Gendler to call King to see if the SCLC wanted Conservative rabbis to come to Birmingham. Gendler spoke with King’s brother and heard that MLK believed that a delegation of rabbis to the city was both “urgent—and of great importance.” While individual rabbis decided whether to accompany Gendler to Birmingham, a resolution was drafted to express the RA’s support of their mission:
“Resolved, that The Rabbinical Assembly, in convention assembled, enthusiastically endorse the action of members of The Rabbinical Assembly who volunteer to go to Birmingham to speak and act on behalf of human rights and dignity.”
Kaplan was the first to speak in the floor discussion of this resolution. Each individual, he said, carries a personal responsibility to proliferate justice in the world. But to further justice effectively, individuals must motivate the collective bodies to which they belong to join the struggle for righteousness in cooperation with other groups. It is for this reason that he had called on the RA to work towards the creation of a World Parliament of Religions. Kaplan continued:
In light of all that I have been saying with regard to responsibility being effective only when it is carried out as collective responsibility, it follows inevitably that only if they go in our name will the action of the few who go have any significance as far as public opinion and the actual improvement of the situation are concerned. There is no doubt in my mind that it is our moral duty not to evade questions that have to do with moral issues, confining ourselves merely to questions of ritual matters. It is high time that The Rabbinical Assembly come to be known by the world at large, as well as by our own Jewish people, as a body that is vitally interested in moral issues, with not only something to say but something to do.
A number of rabbis spoke in favor of Kaplan’s view, including Gendler, who said: “Dr. Kaplan's point is very relevant now. We happen to be in convention assembled. It is one of the few opportunities when we can speak collectively. If we are to go as random individuals, then, it seems to me, the real point is lost.” In response, Rabbi Theodore Friedman, the president of the RA, amended the resolution to read:
“Resolved, that The Rabbinical Assembly, in convention assembled, enthusiastically endorse the action of the members of The Rabbinical Assembly who in its name volunteer to go to Birmingham to speak on behalf of human rights and dignity.”
The resolution passed, and the rabbinic delegation left for Birmingham that night.
