January 13, 2006

During the Civil Rights Movement, Jewish activists represented a disproportionate number of whites involved in the struggle. Jews made up half of the young people who participated in the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964. There were many rabbis who marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., throughout the South, several of whom were both jailed and beaten.

Many leaders of the Reform Jewish Movement were arrested with Martin Luther King, Jr., in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1964 after a challenge to racial segregation in public accommodations. Hear the story first hand from Rabbi Israel Dresner. Rabbi Dresner was one of those sixteen Rabbis who marched, and was later arrested, in St. Augustine. Rabbi Dresner worked closely with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and was the central figure in the antisegregationist Supreme Court case, Dresner vs. Tallahassee. He was arrested four times for his civil rights activism in Florida and Georgia.

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View our Resources on Martin Luther King Day

This podcast was made possible by the support of the Marjorie Kovler Institute for Black/Jewish Relations and the Barbra Streisand Program for Black/Jewish Cooperation.