What does it take to be a Reform Zionist? Rabbi Mara S. Nathan

Transcription

1 What does it take to be a Reform Zionist? Rabbi Mara S. Nathan Before we read the Akedah from the Torah this morning It seems just right to incorporate the place where, at least from my perspective, Abraham almost destroyed the future of the Jewish people, (Prepared as he was to sacrifice his son Isaac) into an up to the minute flash forward across the millennia as we unpack a modern Akedah moment.not a misunderstanding between God and Abraham, but between Jew and Jew.Ultra Orthodox and others both in Israel and abroad who clearly have different definitions of what faith and loyalty mean and how they play out in religious custom practice and law. I am, of course talking about, the conflict at the Kotel- the Western Wall, between Women of the wall along with their liberal supporters AND the Haredim of Israel and the ambivalent, secular government and civil infrastructure who back them up. But before we dive in to what s been happening b Aretz (as we say) in THE LAND, let s take a step back and think about what our role should/could be. As American Jews do we have a stake in what is happening on the ground in Israel? Or must one be a resident of the Holy Land, to claim an active role in the Zionist dream? AND, Knowing that for many of us, Zionism is equated with a more right wing militant commitment to the future of Israel, do we as Reform Jews have an influence or even an angle on what Zionism is all about? Let me give you a quick Zionist primer as background. As we consider the two main streams of Zionism. Political and Cultural. According to veteran Zionist education Dr. Michael Livini, POLITICAL ZIONISM as promulgated by Theodor Herzl at the first Zionist Congress in 1897 has achieved its finite aim of establishing a State for the Jews and the role of the political Zionists came to an end in On the other hand, CULTURAL ZIONISM espoused by Achad Ha am sought the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Eretz Yisrael in order to ensure the continued creative survival of the Jewish people. This aim is an infinite one. Different movements within cultural Zionism have sought to realize a comprehensive vision of what the nature of the Jewish State should be. Zionism today, then according to Livini is all about Jewish life in Israel. Where does that leave us as Reform Jews? Let s start with Eric Yoffie, who is the immediate past president of our Reform Movement and also happens to be our December Brotherhood Breakfast speaker. RABBI ERIC YOFFIE Zionism is the belief that the establishment of a Jewish and democratic state in the Land of Israel is essential for the creative survival of the Jewish people. Being a Zionist does not require that I live in the Jewish state, but it does require serious and thoughtful advocacy for the proposition noted above. Zionism calls for a state that is democratic; it must offer equal rights to all those who permanently reside within its borders. Zionism calls for a state that is Jewish...the precise nature of Israel s Jewish character has yet to be defined and will evolve over time. The task of Zionism now is to assure that the Jewish state has a secure Jewish majority so that her Jewish citizens can determine by democratic methods what it means for Israel to be Jewish. By bestowing sovereignty on the Jewish people and returning them to history, Zionism gives the Jewish people control over their own destiny...using power is complicated and often morally compromising. Zionists hope that, tempered by Jewish values, Israel s rulers will exercise power responsibly and will be especially sensitive to issues such as religious freedom and minority rights. But Zionism is not ambivalent about power, because in the absence of power, all other values are turned to dust. Zionism bestows upon Jews everywhere a role in determining the character of the Jewish state. Final authority rests with

2 Israel s citizens, whether Jewish or not. But Israel is not primarily the state of Israelis; it is the state of the Jewish people. And as the state of the Jewish people, it invites Jews in every country of the Diaspora to visit frequently, engage in its affairs, participate in its debates, generate support for its policies, offer criticism of its actions, and to at least think about living there. Doing all of these things including expressing criticism, even harsh criticism requires no special permission from Israeli or Diaspora leaders; the right to do so is inherent in the Zionist mission. (Huffington Post, April 25, 2012) What does it take to be a Zionist according to Yoffie? The belief that Israel is essential to the maintenance of the Jewish people. A knowledge of what s going on in Israel A commitment to the country in good times and bad, sharing love, critique and criticism as is required, but always with a deep abiding love and commitment to Eretz Yisrael. Now lets look at Livni- an Austrian born, Canadian who made aliyah in the early 1960s. A social psychiatrist who has lived on kibbutzim, served as director General of the world Zionist Organization s dept of Jewish Education and Culture and currently serves as chair person of Amutat Tzell Hatatmar, the registered society which supports ecological projects on Kibbutz Lotan. Livni has a completely different take on what it really means to be Zionist, focusing on what Reform Zionism in particular might look like. Dr. Michael Livni... The support of Reform Jews for Israel (including Reform Jewish projects in Israel) is pro-israelism and not necessarily Reform Zionism...What is the vision of Reform Zionism? How should the Jewish state become a society in which the prophetic ideas of Judaism will be integrated with the democratic idea of equal worth of all, i.e. a society which is Jewish and democratic?.reform Zionism must affirm a culture of intentional community that seeks to foster the synthesis between Judaism and democracy, as a torat chaim, a holistic way of life today, which is also dedicated to a moral ideal tomorrow. Clearly there can be a pluralism of paths to this infinite goal. Yet to be effective Reform Zionsim must have: 1. An ideology capable of mobilizing the commitment of a crucial mass prepared to realize that ideology; 2. An educational system- formal and informal- from k-12 and beyond based on the ideological rationale; 3. Intentional community which by attempting to realize the ideology as torat chaim symbolize and project the ideas and ideals of the movement to the surrounding society in Israel and to the liberal Jewish Diaspora.Currently all three of the above components are inadequately developed within Reform for an effective Reform Zionist movement. (July 2006) According to Livni, can we Americans be Zionist? Why not? What is real Reform Zionism and how do we get there? Interestingly his 3 requirements for effective Reform Zionism are just as essential ingredients for effective Reform Jewish communities here in American as well, and these are ideals we are striving to reach too. Now we are ready to talk about women of the wall! Because if Reform Zionism was the prevalent Zionist movement in Israel, there would be no problem at all. So, who are women of the wall, what seems to be the problem? And what does this conflict highlight about the challenges of making an effective cultural Reform Zionist state come true?

3 As Anat Hoffman alluded last week, when she was quoted by the Jerusalem Post, this is not just about the Kotel. Its about how Israel as a state handles internal issues of religious tension, social and cultural differences and civil rights amongst its own Jewish citizens. Who are they? well according to the women of the wall website: Their central mission is to achieve the social and legal recognition of their right, as women, to wear prayer shawls (tallitot), pray (t fillah), and read from the Torah collectively and out loud at the Western Wall. They ve been trying to do this for almost 25 years. Every month on Rosh Hodesh, (the beginning of the new month) a multi denominational group of women have gathered at 7am in the women s section of the Kotel to try to sing and pray out loud - tefilla, wearing tallit and tefillin and read from a Sefer Torah. The struggle to engage in these acts of devotion, which seem normal to us here, have consumed these women in 25 years worth of legal actions, arrests, humiliations, abuse and assaults. Between 2010 and 2013, over 50 women were detained and/or arrested while praying at the Kotel. But as some of you may know, this past April, Natan Sharanksy Chair of the Jewish Agency in Israel, put together a compromise plan to finally resolve the tensions between the Ultra Orthodox who use the kotel as their personal shul and the women of the wall who also claim the right as Jews to pray there, in their own fashion as well. It s a bit complicated, but I thought that the following excerpt from a CCAR statement last week does a pretty good job of encapsulating the essential points. THE SHARANSKY PLAN: The fundamental principles of the plan are to create an area for egalitarian/pluralistic prayer to the right of the ramp to the Temple Mount, an area equal in size and elevation to the existing prayer zone; secure, common, and equal physical access to both the gender-segregated and the egalitarian/pluralistic areas on a 24/7/365 basis; common entries to the public plaza leading to all sections; governance of the egalitarian/pluralistic prayer area and the public plaza outside the present prayer areas by a pluralistic body under the aegis of the Jewish Agency, including leaders of liberal Jewish Movements, rather than the present, Orthodox-dominated Western Wall Heritage Foundation; and transforming the Western Wall Heritage Foundation to reflect the diversity of Jewish belief and practice in Israel and among the Jewish People. (CCAR Statement, 8/26/2013) By the way, this was not an ideal solution from the Reform leadership s perspective, but they were willing to go along with its compromises in the interste of Shalom Bayit. (that everyone should get along.) Then, even more exciting, a few weeks later Judge Moshe Sobel vindicated the women of the wall even further. THE RULING: On April 25 Judge Moshe Sobel ruled that women praying at the Western Wall with prayer shawls and tefillin does not constitute a violation of local custom or a provocation The district court also ruled that contrary to police interpretations of a previous Supreme Court ruling, there is no prohibition preventing women from holding their own prayer services at the Western Wall nor any requirement that they congregate instead at the nearby Robinson s Arch. Sobel-an Orthodox Jew himself - wrote in his decision that, contrary to police interpretations, Women of the Wall were not in violation of the law requiring worshippers to abide by local custom when praying at the wall. Sobel also ruled that women praying at the wall were not a disturbance of the peace, as police maintained, and that, therefore, there was

4 no reason to impose any limitations on their movement at the holy site. Thus, Women of the Wall have the legal right to engage in the 4Ts : out loud Tefila, Tallit, Tefillin and reading from a sefer Torah. (Judy Maltz & Yair Ettinger, Ha-aretz 4/25/2013) Yet of course, it was all too good to be true, and as we know with all social change there can often be a gross disparity between the letter of the law, and how that law is carried out on the ground. THE AFTERMATH: Since the Sobel ruling the Women of the Wall have been stymied from exercising the rights that they were guaranteed by the court. Most of those months, Haredi leaders organized the busing of literally thousands of Haredi yeshiva girls to arrive at the Kotel - at 6:30 AM - 30 minutes before the 24 year long established time of Women of the Wall, so that when Women of the Wall arrived, they were told by the police who cooperate with the Haredim - there s no room for you at the Kotel. As a result, they have now been banished to stand distant from the Kotel, including next to the public bathrooms. They have been surrounded by Haredim who shout at them throughout the entire service, call them hateful names - and even organize to blow deafening whistles at them throughout the service. (Rabbi Iris Richman, Jewish Voices Together) Despite these harsh realities on the ground, Sharansky and Cabinet Secretary Avichai Mandelblit were cochairing a committee to hammer out the details when all of sudden, Religious Affairs Minister Naphtali Bennet, announced and then unveiled a temporary prayer platform, that opponents, and the women of the wall, especially, are concerned will morph from temporary solution to permanent compromise, leaving them with less than they started with in the first place. As was reported in all the Jewish press, but here I quote from the non Jewish press, the whole thing was beginning to get a little scary from a liberal Jewish point of view. And does not ring of the high ideals of Social Justice we were hoping for! THE BENNET COMPROMISE: When Israel s Religious Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett unveiled his new provisional platform for egalitarian prayer services near the Western Wall on Sunday, his so-called compromise elicited a mixed response...women of the Wall called the structure a sunbathing deck that overlooks the Western Wall from a distance and staged a 24-hour sit-in to protest it. The Prime Minister s Office was embarrassed and issued a clarificatory statement distancing itself from Bennett s project. But others, particularly American Jewish leaders, took a rosier view. In the New York Times, prominent leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements were quoted as offering cautious praise for Bennett s platform. The suggestion seems to be that we should give Bennett the benefit of the doubt and take him at his word when he says this was done now in order to provide every Jew with a place to pray during the holidays. But we shouldn t be so credulous. How can we tell that Bennett s Western Wall move is not really a goodwill gesture? It s very simple: Did he consult with Women of the Wall, asking them what exactly their needs are and whether this new structure would meet those needs? Clearly, the answer is no. Did he consult with the leaders of the non-orthodox movements securing their approval for this structure in advance? Again, no.when you re sincere about wanting to correct a perceived injustice, about

5 wanting to help a group that feels disenfranchised, you don t try to override that group s subjectivity or go over their heads...you welcome their active involvement when it comes to formulating and implementing a solution. And you do it all transparently. If Bennett were sincerely interested in satisfying the needs of Women of the Wall, or non-orthodox Jews, or both, he wouldn t have sprung his so-called compromise on them. He would have involved them at every step of the way. (The Daily Beast, August 28, 2013) The day all this happened (a week ago Sunday and Monday) I woke up to an urgent group from Rabbi Iris Richman, founder of Jewish Voices Together, a group that has been organizing monthly Rosh Hodesh Services called Wake up for Jewish Tolerance in solidarity with the women of the wall in New York City. She was calling for as many people as possible to gather outside the Israeli consulate to express our opposition to the Bennet platform and to show our solidarity with the Women of the Wall who were staging their own 24 hour sit-in at Robinson s Arch in the Old City in Jerusalem. I already knew I was going to talk about Women of the Wall. Over 130 rabbis in 50 congregations across the denominations have pledged to do so. So I thought it would be important to go to the protest. Put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. Rena Fraade, our Religious School Director drove in, with me. I am really glad I went. Because I was one of 6 people who were there! How could this be? There were over 500 people at the first Rosh Hodesh solidarity minyan this past March at the Brotherhood Synagogue in NYC. But timing being what it was, people out of town or just bogged down with high holiday prep not that many people motivated. Admittedly I felt a little sheepish, wearing my tallit, blowing a shofar and playing Jewish songs of peace and promise on my guitar.but upon reflection, I was reminded of how the road to social change is steep and long. How it does not happen through political proposals, Government rulings, and diplomatic platitudes. Its not always a great press moment. Its about digging in, making your voice heard and inconveniencing yourself for a social truth you believe in. And it made me think how apropos it was that last week was also the 50 th anniversary of Martin Luther King Junior s iconic I have a dream speech. In commemorating the day, Obama gave a beautiful speech particularly highlighting this truth PRESIDENT BARAK OBAMA Five decades ago today, Americans came to this honored place to lay claim to a promise made at our founding. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In 1963, almost 200 years after those words were set to paper...that promise, those truths remained unmet. And so they came by the thousands, from every corner of our country -- men and women, young and old, blacks who longed for freedom and whites who could no longer accept freedom for themselves while witnessing the subjugation of others. We rightly and best remember Dr. King's soaring oratory that day.but we would do well to recall that day itself also belonged to those ordinary people whose names never appeared in the history books, never got on TV. In the face of hatred, they prayed for their tormentors. In the face of violence, they stood up and sat in with the moral force of nonviolence. Willingly, they went to jail to protest unjust laws, their cells swelling with the sound of freedom songs. A lifetime of indignities had taught them that no man can take away the dignity and grace that God grants us. They had learned through hard experience what Frederick Douglass once taught: that freedom is not given; it must be won through struggle and discipline, persistence and faith And because they kept marching, America changed. Because they marched, the civil rights law was passed. Because they marched, the voting rights law

6 was signed. Because they marched, doors of opportunity and education swung open so their daughters and sons could finally imagine a life for themselves beyond washing somebody else's laundry or shining somebody else's shoes. Because they marched, city councils changed and state legislatures changed and Congress changed and, yes, eventually the White House changed. Because they marched, America became more free and more fair, not just for African-Americans but for women and Latinos, Asians and Native Americans, for Catholics, Jews and Muslims, for gays, for Americans with disabilities. America changed for you and for me. (50 th Anniversary of MLK I have a Dream Speech, 8/28/2013) OK.so of course since this is all happening in real time over the last week or so, there have been further developments since our text study was printed, that are important to share. The first, is that Naftali Bennet wrote a letter on Friday to Diaspora Jewish leaders promising that he remains committed to the government s efforts to advance the "Sharansky Plan" as well as to continuing a dialogue with representatives from all religious movements and all parts of the Jewish nation. And Mandelblit had a face to face with US Ambassador, Michael Oren who shared how Mandelbilit wishes to clarify and stress that the recommendations of the Advisory Committee are by no means intended to nullify or replace the Sharansky Plan, that the Committee has nothing but praise for the Sharansky Plan but that at this time, Israel faces substantive difficulties in implementing the plan due to highly sensitive diplomatic, strategic, and security conditions. He emphasized that the report will recommend for the first time the establishment of a State role for Conservative and Reform Rabbis. And that the Government of Israel wishes to reiterate its commitment to continue to work with Conservative, Reform, and Orthodox leaders to reach a resolution of the Kotel acceptable to all in the spirit of klal Yisrael. Could this all have been just be a huge misunderstanding? I don t think so. As a matter of fact, I think that the perhaps well intentioned platform, and the rush of attention, and negative publicity it has received including a huge backlash from the liberal press in Israel and abroad have helped move forward the ideals of Reform Zionism as Livni defined them. And anyway, it s not just about Anat Hoffman, or Mandelblit, or Naftali Bennet, but about the women Reform, Orthodox, Conservative and others who are passionate about their right to free religious expression in their home land at their western wall. And its not even only about this Rosh Hodesh Prayer group, but about the tension between different ideologies competing for space and certitude on the Zionist stage. What is the role of religious expression in the Jewish State? Should one group, the Ultra Orthodox, have final say? Or can there really be a spectrum of belief, ritual and practice on the ground there as there is here so that Israel can continue to develop into the modern Democratic Nation it so desperately wants to be? THIS journey, is what the purpose of being a Reform Zionist, is all about. You know the expression, two steps forward, one step back.eventually, I pray, we get where we need to go. This March, I am going to bring a group of women from Larchmont Temple to experience Israel, (You can go to the temple website to register!) and we are planning on joining in the celebration of Rosh Hodesh with the women of the wall. I am hoping the platform at Robinson s Arch will by then, be a historical footnote, but maybe not. But we ll keep talking about it, advocating for justice and showing up too until everyone has space to be the Jew their own authentic Jewish self in Israel or wherever they happen to be. AMEN

7 What does it take to be a Reform Zionist? RABBI ERIC YOFFIE [Immediate past president of the URJ] Zionism is the belief that the establishment of a Jewish and democratic state in the Land of Israel is essential for the creative survival of the Jewish people. Being a Zionist does not require that I live in the Jewish state, but it does require serious and thoughtful advocacy for the proposition noted above. Zionism calls for a state that is democratic; it must offer equal rights to all those who permanently reside within its borders. Zionism calls for a state that is Jewish...the precise nature of Israel s Jewish character has yet to be defined and will evolve over time. The task of Zionism now is to assure that the Jewish state has a secure Jewish majority so that her Jewish citizens can determine by democratic methods what it means for Israel to be Jewish.By bestowing sovereignty on the Jewish people and returning them to history, Zionism gives the Jewish people control over their own destiny...using power is complicated and often morally compromising. Zionists hope that, tempered by Jewish values, Israel s rulers will exercise power responsibly and will be especially sensitive to issues such as religious freedom and minority rights. But Zionism is not ambivalent about power, because in the absence of power, all other values are turned to dust. Zionism bestows upon Jews everywhere a role in determining the character of the Jewish state. Final authority rests with Israel s citizens, whether Jewish or not. But Israel is not primarily the state of Israelis; it is the state of the Jewish people. And as the state of the Jewish people, it invites Jews in every country of the Diaspora to visit frequently, engage in its affairs, participate in its debates, generate support for its policies, offer criticism of its actions, and to at least think about living there. Doing all of these things including expressing criticism, even harsh criticism requires no special permission from Israeli or Diaspora leaders; the right to do so is inherent in the Zionist mission. (Huffington Post, 4/25/2012) DR. MICHAEL LIVNI [veteran Zionist educator & Kibbutz Lotan member in Israel s southern Arava desert] The support of Reform Jews for Israel (including Reform Jewish projects in Israel) is pro-israelism and not necessarily Reform Zionism...What is the vision of Reform Zionism? How should the Jewish state become a society in which the prophetic ideas of Judaism will be integrated with the democratic idea of equal worth of all, i.e. a society which is Jewish and democratic?.reform Zionism must affirm a culture of intentional community that seeks to foster the synthesis between Judaism and democracy, as a torat chaim, a holistic way of life today, which is also dedicated to a moral ideal tomorrow. Clearly there can be a pluralism of paths to this infinite goal. Yet to be effective Reform Zionsim must have: 1. An ideology capable of mobilizing the commitment of a crucial mass prepared to realize that ideology; 2. An educational system- formal and informal- from k-12 and beyond based on the ideological rationale; 3. Intentional community which by attempting to realize the ideology as torat chaim symbolize and project the ideas and ideals of the movement to the surrounding society in Israel and to the liberal Jewish Diaspora.Currently all three of the above components are inadequately developed within Reform for an effective Reform Zionist movement. (July 2006) CASE STUDY: WOMEN OF THE WALL- We are at a crossroad for religious freedom and freedom of expression in Israel. Today this affects Women of the Wall, but tomorrow it will affect every Israeli and Jew around the world. -Anat Hoffman (Jerusalem Post, 8/26/2013) WHO ARE THEY? As Women of the Wall, our central mission is to achieve the social and legal recognition of our right, as women, to wear prayer shawls, pray, and read from the Torah collectively and out loud at the Western Wall. THE SHARANSKY PLAN: The fundamental principles of the plan are to create an area for egalitarian/pluralistic prayer to the right of the ramp to the Temple Mount, an area equal in size and elevation to the existing prayer zone; secure, common, and equal physical access to both the gender-segregated and the egalitarian/pluralistic areas on a 24/7/365 basis; common entries to the public plaza leading to all sections; governance of the egalitarian/pluralistic prayer area and the public plaza outside the present prayer areas by a pluralistic body

8 under the aegis of the Jewish Agency, including leaders of liberal Jewish Movements, rather than the present, Orthodox-dominated Western Wall Heritage Foundation; and transforming the Western Wall Heritage Foundation to reflect the diversity of Jewish belief and practice in Israel and among the Jewish People. (CCAR Statement, 8/26/2013) THE RULING: On April 25, Judge Moshe Sobel ruled that women praying at the Western Wall with prayer shawls and tefillin, does not constitute a violation of local custom or a provocation. The district court also ruled that contrary to police interpretations of a previous Supreme Court ruling, there is no prohibition preventing women from holding their own prayer services at the Western Wall nor any requirement that they congregate instead at the nearby Robinson s Arch. Sobel-an Orthodox Jew himself - wrote in his decision that, contrary to police interpretations, Women of the Wall were not in violation of the law requiring worshippers to abide by local custom when praying at the wall. Sobel also ruled that women praying at the wall were not a disturbance of the peace, as police maintained, and that, therefore, there was no reason to impose any limitations on their movement at the holy site. Thus, Women of the Wall have the legal right to engage in the 4Ts : out loud Tefila, Tallit, Tefillin and reading from a sefer Torah. (Judy Maltz & Yair Ettinger, Ha-aretz 4/25/2013) THE AFTERMATH: Since the Sobel ruling the Women of the Wall have been stymied from exercising the rights that they were guaranteed by the court. Most of those months, Haredi leaders organized the busing of literally thousands of Haredi yeshiva girls to arrive at the Kotel - at 6:30 AM - 30 minutes before the 24 year long established time of Women of the Wall, so that when Women of the Wall arrived, they were told by the police who cooperate with the Haredim - there s no room for you at the Kotel. As a result, they have now been banished to stand distant from the Kotel, including next to the public bathrooms. They have been surrounded by Haredim who shout at them throughout the entire service, call them hateful names - and even organize to blow deafening whistles at them throughout the service. (Rabbi Iris Richman, Jewish Voices Together) THE BENNETT COMPROMISE : When Israel s Religious Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett unveiled his new provisional platform for egalitarian prayer services near the Western Wall on Sunday, his so-called compromise elicited a mixed response...women of the Wall called the structure a sunbathing deck that overlooks the Western Wall from a distance and staged a 24-hour sit-in to protest it. The Prime Minister s Office was embarrassed and issued a clarificatory statement distancing itself from Bennett s project. But others, particularly American Jewish leaders, took a rosier view. In the New York Times, prominent leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements were quoted as offering cautious praise for Bennett s platform. The suggestion seems to be that we should give Bennett the benefit of the doubt and take him at his word when he says this was done now in order to provide every Jew with a place to pray during the holidays. But we shouldn t be so credulous. How can we tell that Bennett s Western Wall move is not really a goodwill gesture? It s very simple: Did he consult with Women of the Wall, asking them what exactly their needs are and whether this new structure would meet those needs? Clearly, the answer is no. Did he consult with the leaders of the non-orthodox movements securing their approval for this structure in advance? Again, no.when you re sincere about wanting to correct a perceived injustice, about wanting to help a group that feels disenfranchised, you don t try to override that group s subjectivity or go over their heads...you welcome their active involvement when it comes to formulating and implementing a solution. And you do it all transparently. If Bennett were sincerely interested in satisfying the needs of Women of the Wall, or non-orthodox Jews, or both, he wouldn t have sprung his so-called compromise on them. He would have involved them at every step of the way. (The Daily Beast, August 28, 2013)

9 PRESIDENT BARAK OBAMA Five decades ago today, Americans came to this honored place to lay claim to a promise made at our founding. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights,that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In 1963, almost 200 years after those words were set to paper...that promise, those truths remained unmet. And so they came by the thousands, from every corner of our country -- men and women, young and old, blacks who longed for freedom and whites who could no longer accept freedom for themselves while witnessing the subjugation of others. We rightly and best remember Dr. King's soaring oratory that day.but we would do well to recall that day itself also belonged to those ordinary people whose names never appeared in the history books, never got on TV. In the face of hatred, they prayed for their tormentors. In the face of violence, they stood up and sat in with the moral force of nonviolence. Willingly, they went to jail to protest unjust laws, their cells swelling with the sound of freedom songs. A lifetime of indignities had taught them that no man can take away the dignity and grace that God grants us. They had learned through hard experience what Frederick Douglass once taught: that freedom is not given; it must be won through struggle and discipline, persistence and faith And because they kept marching, America changed. Because they marched, the civil rights law was passed. Because they marched, the voting rights law was signed. Because they marched, doors of opportunity and education swung open so their daughters and sons could finally imagine a life for themselves beyond washing somebody else's laundry or shining somebody else's shoes. Because they marched, city councils changed and state legislatures changed and Congress changed and, yes, eventually the White House changed. Because they marched, America became more free and more fair, not just for African-Americans but for women and Latinos, Asians and Native Americans, for Catholics, Jews and Muslims, for gays, for Americans with disabilities. America changed for you and for me. (50 th Anniversary of MLK I have a Dream Speech, 8/28/2013)