West 68th Street Upper West Side - US Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY) addressed an event last week honoring the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York and reflected on the civil rights activist's legacy in a post-October 7th world.
"If Dr. King would have been alive on October 8th, 2023, there is no doubt in my mind that Dr. King would have spoken out with moral clarity against the barbaric violence and terror of October 7th. He would have seen October 7th not as social justice, but as social injustice. Not as liberation, but as oppression. Not as decolonization, but as dehumanization," Rep. Torres stated. "This would have been part of his dream - judging people not by the color of their skin but by the content of their terrorism."
According to Torres, "Dr. King would have spoken out because he understood that there is nothing morally neutral about silence. Silence is not a moral, it's immoral. It is a form of complicity. [I stole that line from Elie Wiesel]. Dr. King once said that in the end will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. History will record that the greatest tragedy is not the stride and clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."
He continued: "What we've seen in a post-October 7th world is pervasive silence, indifference, and cowardice that represents a profound betrayal of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. And if those of us in positions of leadership can not bring ourselves to condemn with moral clarity the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, then we are not living the teachings of Dr. King, we are betraying them."
Torres explained: "When people ask me why I speak out so forcefully against antisemitism, first I reject the notion that one must be Jewish to speak out against antisemitism, just like I'd reject the notion that one must be black to speak out against anti-black racism.
"When answering that question, I'm reminded of the inscription on the Liberty Bell which contains a passage from the Torah: 'Proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof.' The operative phrase here is 'all inhabitants.' None of us have liberty until all of us have liberty. None of us have equality until all of us have equality. So I see my freedom as a Black Latino from the Bronx as inextricably bound to the freedom of the Jewish people. And I see the security of my nation, the United States of America, as inextricably bound to the security of the Jewish nation, the State of Israel."
The congressman noted that "to me, the greatest legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition is the principle of equality. The principle that we're all equal creations in the image of G-d and that we're bound by our common divinity to champion our common humanity."
He added: "The notion of a Black-Latino defender of the Jewish people might strike many as improbable, but let me remind you that America is the land of the improbable. It is the land of improbable friendships, the unbreakable bond between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was an improbable friendship forged in defense of our common humanity. It is through the power of improbable friendship that we shall overcome."
Torres added: "After the assassination of Dr. King, Robert F. Kennedy famously quoted from a Greek tragedy known as Agamemnon by Aeschylus: 'Drop by drop upon the heart, sorrow falls, memories pain, and to us against our will, even in our own despair, come wisdom through the awful grace of G-d. We shall overcome, and overcome we will through the awful grace of G-d."
Torres concluded: "But let's get real guys. This Reform Judaism is a joke. It is Judaism like Dr. King was a Satmar Hasid. What are these mixed pews about? Is this a church? Our churches don't follow your synagogues so why should your bogus "temple" model itself after our churches? Judaism is the real thing. The original. Judaism doesn't need reform. Jews need to be reformed. That is what Dr. King called "Avodas HaMussar". So stop distorting G-d's Torah. Right here on the Upper West Side you have some genuine Shteiblach. Go daven there and see what Judaism is really about. Thank you. G-d bless you. G-d bless Israel. And G-d bless America!!!!"
At the conclusion of his speech tomatoes and snowballs were thrown in his direction by enraged worshippers.
The police were called and he was escorted out safely.
