Letter: Continue legacy of King, Heschel
In the film "Selma," there is the absence of a striking figure with flowing white hair and beard, who was one person away from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; he is Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, renowned philosopher, author and activist.
Heschel was invited to a meeting of religious leaders with President John F. Kennedy. The day before the event, Heschel sent the president a telegram about civil rights, asking him to declare the nation's racial inequality a "state of moral emergency" and to act with "high moral grandeur and spiritual audacity."
Heschel received a telegram from King inviting him to join the third march from Selma to Montgomery. Heschel later wrote: "For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying."
As we just marked Martin Luther King Day, let us reflect not just to honor the man, who stirred so many, or to remember the events that our community took part in, but to ask ourselves how we can still keep this legacy alive.