Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and More: One USY Chapter's Commitment to Interfaith Programming

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is more than just a time to reflect on civil rights and Jewish-African American relations. For teens at Adath Israel Congregation (AI) in Cincinnati, Ohio, it’s an opportunity to meet with the black community and for Jewish and black communities to learn together. AI USY, Adath Israel’s USY chapter (part of the CRUSY region), hosts an annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event in partnership with the Avondale Youth Council, a youth group associated with the Avondale Community Council. Avondale is a historically black neighborhood in Cincinnati with a past that is significantly tied to the Civil Rights Movement. Today, more than 90% of its residents are black.

Sawyer Goldsmith, USY’s 2018 International Religion/Education Vice President (Rel/Ed), spoke with Shayna Kling, AI USY’s president, about their Martin Luther King, Jr. event, as well as other interfaith and inter-community events that the chapter hosts. The MLK event is a full day of programming that aims to show teens from both communities that their ancestral histories are not too different. In the morning, participants hear from a speaker involved with the black community before marching in the city’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day parade. Then, the group spends the afternoon at the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education.

“[The USYers] get the Martin Luther King education and remember him on that day and [the Avondale Youth Council] learn about the Holocaust and the similarities that Jews have with the African-American community,” Kling said. “It is unlike anything you would ever get in another aspect of life.”

Kling said that teens from both groups enjoy the program. She specifically mentioned how important it is to meet and get to know people outside of your normal circle.

“Sometimes it’s hard to put yourself in that situation, where you’re meeting entirely new people from a different culture, but afterwards, I only heard positive remarks,” she said. “I think it was good to step outside of those boundaries and meet new and different people.”

from USCJ https://uscj.org/blog/martin-luther-king-jr-day-and-more-one-usy-chapters-commitment-to-interfaith-programming
via USCJ