COMMUNITY

Rabbi Revisits Jewish Civil Rights History

By Bob Bahr

Temple Sinai paid tribute earlier this month to a group of largely forgotten Southern rabbis who were leaders in the civil rights struggle during the 1950s and

1960s. In a scholar-in-residence program June 4-5, Associate Rabbi Brad Levenberg called the group of five religious leaders in the South “giants” whose seminal work in this critical period of American history has mainly been ignored.

Levenberg researched the careers of the rabbis for a Ph.D. dissertation he just completed. He believes that their work 60 years ago is directly relevant to the challenges rabbis face today.

In an interview after the presentation, Levenberg said, “Rabbis today have a lot to learn from the leadership examples of these rabbis of yesterday, specifically how they dealt with the contentious and divisive community issues, how they were able to read and understand the context of their community and their role in the community, and as well how unafraid they were to be able to take stands according to their moral convictions.”

Typical of the activists was Rabbi William Silverman, who led Nashville’s largest synagogue Congregation Ohabai Sholom during the 1950s, Levenberg said. Silverman hosted a weekly radio show and was a strong supporter of racial integration in the years following the historic 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregated schools.

In 1958, the same year that The Temple in Atlanta was bombed, the Nashville Jewish Community Center was also attacked. Minutes after the community center blast, a caller from the “Confederate Underground” called the Silverman home to tell the rabbi that his synagogue

would be next.

Silverman answered the threats against the synagogue with a sermon the following Friday night that was defiantly titled “We Will Not Yield.” But he was also made a deputy sheriff and carried a gun with him wherever he went.

He organized interfaith clergy and participated at sit-ins and civil rights training sessions at Fisk University, Nashville’s historically black college.

To the synagogue’s members who were prominent retailers in the city, he issued a direct challenge to integrate their work force.

“In a really jarring example, he compelled his congregants at one point to hire more African American work-

ers. And they did. But they hired them to work in the back rooms, never on the main floor,” Levenberg said during his presentation.

The activist rabbis in the South were not always successful in convincing their congregations to follow their lead.

A prime example was Rabbi Burton Padoll, who led the Kahal Kodesh Beth Elohim congregation in Charleston, S.C., beginning in 1961. He continually exhorted his congregation to accept responsibility for a history of supporting racial injustice but was met with less than complete success.

During his Temple Sinai presentation, Levenberg quoted Padoll’s critical words to his Charleston congregation during the 1960s.

“My request of you over these past critical years have been based primarily on your responsibilities towards your fellow man. But many of you have refused to listen. You’ve said that this is not a Jewish problem and that therefore you would not lead the way. You already lost the chance to lead the way.”

After seven years in Charleston, Padoll resigned.

According to Levenberg, the reluctance by Jewish business leaders in the South to embrace the activism of their rabbis led many religious leaders to work quietly, but effectively, behind the scenes.

He was particularly impressed by the work of Rabbi Irving Bloom, who served the Springhill Avenue Temple in Mobile, Ala. from 1960 to 1973. Bloom, like so many rabbis of the time, successfully worked in Southern Jewish communities characterized by what one commentator called an “almost possible” and “almost impossible” racial climate. Levenberg said of Bloom during the scholar-in-residence program, “He was a convener. He was somebody who built relationships and worked to use those relationships to make a difference in Mobile.” Levenberg did his research over a three-year program in Leadership and Change at Oberlin College in Ohio. He was impressed by how his congregants see what occurred during the civil rights era as a reflection of much of what is happening today.

“I have been receiving recurring comments after my presentation from people who come up to me and say, it’s interesting, the vocabulary may have changed and the times may have changed, but these are some of the exact same issues we’re dealing with right now.” ì

At Temple Sinai, Rabbi Brad Levenberg hailed the careers of five Southern rabbis.

Rabbi Irving Bloom in Mobile was an effective behind-the-scenes civil rights advocate. In Nashville, Rabbi William Silverman was an activist who carried a gun for his personal protection.

An Abundance of Angels

By Chana Shapiro

Melody Euchman has lived in six different residences in several Atlanta zip codes. She found the perfect home in Huntley Hills in Chamblee, a neighborhood of 1960s ranch houses with charming colorful gardens of flowers and shrubbery. Affable joggers, parents with toddlers and babies in strollers echo the friendly ambience, and Euchman’s collection of angels is perfectly suited to the serene environment. A welcoming seraph greets a visitor at her driveway’s entrance, and the stage is set for an afternoon among angels.

After successfully selling real estate in New York, Euchman left the Big Apple and moved to Atlanta in December 1994, seeking a more laid-back city. She is a devoted community volunteer for citywide Jewish events, pet rescue organizations and most recently at Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center. Euchman enjoys using her 15 years working at The Home Depot to update her 1964 home, especially applying her knowledge of appliances in her kitchen. “My home now feels perfect for me, my dog Schatzi and my angels!”

Euchman says, “I don’t recall why I started to collect angels. I was drawn to them when I moved from the hustle and pressure of New York to the less stressful Atlanta life of the ‘90s. I purchased my first angel at a folk art store in Buckhead. What attracted me to every piece in my collection is the face of the angel; each one has a beatific smile and exudes kindness. I don’t think of them as idols, and they have no religious symbolism for me. My angels are pieces of art and handmade crafts that appeal to me esthetically and emotionally. What I like about having angels around my home, in my car and in my garden is that they make me feel that they are watching over me,” she said.

“I have found angels in flea markets and resale shops, looked them over long and hard, intended to buy one, but something just wasn’t ‘right’ and I would finally leave the angel on the shelf. I hardly ever search online for angels. I need to see them in person. I don’t think of my collection as a group of ornamental objects, although they are decorative. Once I find the right place in my home for an angel, it usually remains there, where it seems to perfectly belong,” Euchman continues.

“I have a delightful cherub with a small, attached planter that I found several years ago, as soon as I walked into ‘Tossed Out Treasures,’ a Sandy Springs yearly thrift market sale. I marched around with her until I was ready to check out. She was pretty heavy, but I wasn’t giving her up. She resides peacefully on my back porch, in the company of a beautiful plaster plaque reading ‘angels welcome here.’”

Euchman’s favorite angel sits on her front porch. She has a kind, peaceful face, and is holding a little bird in her hands. It was a gift from a friend. “I was won over as soon as I unwrapped the present. She is the only angel I ever got as a gift because I don’t encourage others to buy angels for me. I want to feel a connection before I make an angel part of my home.” The angel lover is selective when adding to her collection. The winged figures she treasures, while not all of great monetary worth. They vary in rarity, provenance and materials, and collectively present a consistent benevolence. As a visitor leaves, a protective cherub bids a warm goodbye from its lofty post above the door.

“I hope that one day I will find a doorpost mezuzah with an angel design or shape that, completed with a kosher scroll inside, will protect me and all that exists within my home." ì

Melody Euchman sits among the angels with her dog Schatzi. Euchman’s favorite angel is a gift from a friend. A cherub holds a plant on Euchman’s sunny deck. This wooden, carved angel was Euchman’s first purchase.

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