Celebrating Minority Unity During Black History Month

Jewish involvement during the Civil Rights Movement was an important factor in joining leaders of the Black and Jewish communities. The Anti-Semitism that the Jewish community faced allowed leaders such as the great forward-thinking rabbi Joachim Prinz to empathize with African Americans and ultimately join Rev. Martin Luther King in organized, peaceful protests. The horrors of the Nazi regime were not far from the history of the Jewish people, and, as such, it was especially evident that the injustices and the struggle for equity that African Americans bore in the United States put them in a similar boat.

The Great March on Washington in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963 (Forward.com)

How Rabbi Joachim Prinz Made a Difference 

Rabbi Joachim Prinz’s lifelong commitment to equality in the face of an unaccepting nation was clear in his stirring speech that came before Martin Luther King’s at the March on Washington. This monumental demonstration of unity was organized by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, who built an alliance of civil rights, labor, and religious organizations that came together under the banner of "jobs and freedom."  At this event, leaders within the civil rights movement were called to action: their voices were called forth to encourage racial equality. The march is best known as the setting for  Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, however, it is also important to note that fellow marginalized communities were also present and calling into question the practices of the Jim Crow era.

A Similar Struggle

Dually representing and addressing the Jewish community, Joachim Prinz orated to a massive audience of approximately 250,000 about “The American Jew,” citing the need to voice injustices and not be silent. During his speech he expressed the commonalities between the American Jew and the American Negro in this country, the similar inequalities they faced, and the empathy they shared based on comparable historic experiences. When speaking of being a rabbi in Berlin under the Hitler regime, he stated “The most important thing that I learned under those tragic circumstances was that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence.” He urged the crowd of thousands to not become the detrimental onlookers of society, but to speak up and act “from the President down to the humblest of us, ”not for the sake of the Negro or the black community, but for the idea and aspiration of America itself.     

Civil rights leaders including Rev. Martin Luther King and rabbi Joachim Prinz meet with President John F. Kennedy after the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. (Library of Congress)

Rabbi Joachim Prinz’s Story

Joachim Prinz in his retirement at home in Brookside, NJ (Joachimprinz.com)

During his younger years as a rabbi in Berlin, rabbi Prinz preached against Nazism despite numerous arrests and constant harassment by the Gestapo. He continued to speak at Berlin’s largest synagogues against Nazi suppression, officiated at thousands of Bar Mitzvahs, weddings and funerals, and wrote seven books including a two-volume children’s bible and Wir Juden, warning Jews about the discrimination they faced in the early 1930s. In 1939, a few years after being expelled from Germany and immigrating to the United States, he was asked to become rabbi of Temple B’nai Abraham in Newark, New Jersey, one of the country’s oldest and most respected synagogues. This further developed his position as a prominent leader in Judaism; he went on to serve as president of the American Jewish Congress from 1958-1966.

A lifelong activist

Prinz invigorated many over his career as a rabbi and inspired countless listeners to recognize and protest the injustices of society. The activism he began in his youth in Nazi Germany he continued with his life’s mission as a public figure in the United States. He ultimately retired in 1977 from an official leadership role in his community, however, Rabbi Prinz continued to speak out against discrimination and bigotry for the rest of his life.