I SHALL NOT BE SILENT

In honor of Black History Month, I Shall Not Be Silent, the third movie of the Civil Rights series was shown about Joachim Prinz, a German-American Rabbi who is known for sermonizing about injustice and racism from his U.S. pulpit, something he had learned about firsthand in his native Berlin during the rise of Hitler. 

Actually Prinz jokes he had been raised in a non observant Jewish family in Germany where the prayer book was only taken out when there was a thunderstorm. Yet, when his Mother at 36, passed away, Prinz insisted on saying Kaddish, the traditional prayer for praising G-d. After the mourning period ended, Prinz knew he had found his religious identity and decided to be a Rabbi.

In 1926 at age 24 Prinz was offered the pulpit in the largest synagogue in Berlin and became its beloved head Rabbi. By 1936   Prinz knew the climate was not good for the Jews so he urged his congregants to flee Germany and go to Israel. He, on the other hand, stayed and was arrested many times for sermons preaching the evils of Nazism using scripture. In fact, he jokes having kept a packed suitcase with him. Eventually Prinz was 'asked' to leave the country (translated-expelled) by the Gestapo. Prinz accepted a prominent U.S. Rabbi's invitation to come to the States where after being an itinerant Rabbi for a while, accepted a rabbinical position at a large Newark, N.J. synagogue.


What Prinz observed in the US in its treatment of Blacks was similar to what he had seen in Germany against the Jews. When he traveled in the South he saw how the Blacks were segregated and didn't have the right to vote. He was appalled. 
He started writing letters to Eisenhower about the injustice,  bigotry and hatred.
Through his involvement in the American Jewish Congress he became a leader in the Civil Rights Movement and met Reverend King.

 Prinz and Martin Luther King, Jr. marched together in the '63 March for Jobs and Freedom and he delivered his speech before Dr. King.  

Rabbi Prinz delivering his speech before MLK in '63

Prinz's message resounded as he had seen what happens when people lose their freedom and when others are silent about that injustice. "America," he said, "shouldn't be a nation of onlookers, the most important thing is to not be silent."

Prinz's stance on Civil Rights and Zionism were not always popular with everybody but he preached about loving everybody, not necessarily 'liking' them. Religion should not be confined to the Sabbath but to living it each day. 

We all shall be thankful for people like Joachim Prinz and remember to not be silent whenever we see injustice...

*Sisters of Selma in which 9 nuns will recount how being part of the Civil Rights movement as African American and White Catholic nuns changed their lives. Showing time and discussion will be: Sunday Feb the 28th at 3pm in the Roncalli Newman Center,  1732 State St in La Crosse WI.