Reflecting upon Dr. King and his impact on my life, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when the radio special bulletin revealed that Dr. King had been shot. My mother taught her entire life in a Newark African-American school, with students who were taught by people of various skin colors and ethnic backgrounds. My father worked in a Newark company where people of various ethnic groups and colors worked together. I can even remember details about the night when Newark elected its first African-American mayor, and how as a teenager I was overjoyed by that election. For me, therefore, Dr. King’s death was a severe setback for America and for the causes of freedom. I admit that growing up in Irvington, NJ, my friends were all white; and therefore I never experienced—being a white person—the obstacles faced by minority groups struggling for equality in education, in housing and in the job market. Nevertheless, my parents raised me the way I have raised my children; to respect the right of each person to live with dignity and to recognize how each of us deserves the equal opportunity to pursue our dreams in a free society. We have made great strides in America, yet discrimination and oppression linger in alarming proportions. However we commemorate Dr. King’s life, I hope we continue his fight to achieve full equality for all Americans, regardless of color, ethnicity, religious background, gender or sexual orientation.
Rabbi Michael Klayman
