{"id":145090,"date":"2026-01-22T19:33:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T19:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/145090\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T19:33:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T19:33:21","slug":"san-diego-disgraces-mlk-by-excluding-rabbi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/145090\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego disgraces MLK by excluding rabbi"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year, the annual \u201cAll Peoples Celebration\u201d run by Alliance San Diego (ASD) had a glaring omission:\u00a0A Jewish religious leader was disinvited<\/a>, due to his support for Zionism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ASD decided that Rabbi Hanan Leberman was unfit for participation among \u201cpeople of all faiths and traditions,\u201d and that to exclude him was the best way to \u201cembody and practice the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. King must be rotating in his grave: If MLK celebrations become spaces where Jews must hide their connection to Israel in order to belong, then his legacy has been lost.<\/p>\n

\"RabbiAlliance San Diego decided that Zionist Rabbi Hanan Leberman was unfit for participation in Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, although MLK himself was a Zionist. Tifereth Israel Synagogue<\/p>\n

For at least the last 75 years, Zionism has been neither a dream nor a political movement. It has, rather, represented support for Jewish life in the Jewish indigenous homeland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is not an ideology expressed in the speeches of Theodor Herzl\u00a0or the essays of\u00a0Ze\u2019ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky; rather, it reflects the fervent prayers of Jews for nearly two millennia: \u201cMay our eyes behold Your [God\u2019s] return to Zion.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are two primary reasons that Jews move to Israel today: To escape bigotry and persecution elsewhere, and as an expression of Jewish belief. Demanding that Jews reject that belief in order to be welcome at a civil rights celebration is thus not neutrality. It is deliberate exclusion of Jews.<\/p>\n

This is something Dr. King knew well; he was not neutral on Zionism<\/a>. He viewed it as a natural expression of civil and human rights for all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He spoke warmly of Israel, affirmed its right to exist in peace, and rejected efforts to single out the Jewish state for condemnation. When confronted by a young black student who condemned Zionism, King responded sharply: \u201cWhen people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You\u2019re talking about antisemitism<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MartinMartin Luther King Jr. once said, \u201cWhen people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You\u2019re talking about antisemitism.\u201d AP<\/p>\n

For King, Zionism was a moral cause rooted in history, survival, and dignity. He understood the Jewish longing for a homeland through the same moral lens that shaped his own struggle: A people\u2019s right to live freely and securely.<\/p>\n

Excluding a Jewish leader because he supports Zionism is therefore not a minor scheduling decision. It is abandonment of King\u2019s own moral compass.<\/p>\n

Dr. King did not build coalitions by demanding that partners abandon their deepest convictions. He built them by insisting on mutual recognition and moral consistency. His vision of solidarity was expansive. It did not flatten differences. It honored them.<\/p>\n

King\u2019s bond with the Jewish community<\/a> was a true partnership. Jewish leaders marched beside him, and supported the civil rights movement at real personal risk. King drew inspiration from the Hebrew prophets, and saw the Jewish story as intertwined with America\u2019s moral journey.<\/p>\n

That history matters.<\/p>\n

The \u201cAll Peoples Celebration\u201d was organized to involve all and promote unity. Its language is inclusive. Most people involved, we can presume, genuinely want to build bridges. But \u201cunity\u201d that requires that a community reject core elements of its identity is not unity. It is exclusion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When organizations invoke King\u2019s name while sidelining Jews for holding views King himself affirmed, \u201cinclusion\u201d becomes selective. Belonging becomes conditional. Some are welcome only if they reject fundamental parts of their identity.<\/p>\n

At the very least, organizers chose to bow to those who demanded the exclusion of a Jew who affirmed a core Jewish belief. But as Dr. King himself taught, real unity requires courage. It requires the willingness to affirm that different histories, traumas, and hopes can coexist in the same civic space.<\/p>\n

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King did not ask America to erase differences. He asked it to elevate character, dignity and justice above fear. He believed truth, even when uncomfortable, was the only path to reconciliation.<\/p>\n

MLK Day remembrances should embody that principle.<\/p>\n

The civil rights movement was never about enforcing a new orthodoxy<\/a>, much less rejecting one form of bigotry in favor of another. It was about expanding the circle of moral concern to encompass all.<\/p>\n

Honoring King in today\u2019s world means resisting the temptation to narrow that circle.<\/p>\n

It means remembering that he stood with Jews when it was easier not to. It means acknowledging that Zionism, at its core, is an expression of human dignity. It means recognizing that inclusion is not real if it is conditional.<\/p>\n

Dr. King dreamed of a nation where no one would be asked to apologize for their identity in order to belong. The most fitting way to honor him is to ensure that his legacy remains broad enough to include everyone he stood for, including the Jewish people and their right to a home.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Yaakov Menken is the Executive Vice President of the Coalition for Jewish Values.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year, the annual \u201cAll Peoples Celebration\u201d run by Alliance San Diego (ASD) had a glaring omission:\u00a0A Jewish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3629,340,65871,975,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-145090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-antisemitism","tag-israel","tag-martin-luther-king-jr","tag-opinion","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}