Heeding Heschel’s Call: Jewish Seminarians Praying With Their Feet at Park51
by: Joshua Stanton on September 2nd, 2010 | No Comments »
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was a bookworm. He both wrote and read voraciously. But he also was also a practical man who lived by his principles. A refugee from Nazi Germany, he knew injustice quite personally. So when he came to the United States, the racial segregation prevalent at the time made him cringe. He became active in the civil rights movement,marching alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama. As he noted to a fellow marcher, “When I march in Selma, my feet are praying.”
Today, the movement for religious freedom and pluralism may well define our era, much as the movement for racial equality defined Heschel’s. Mosques and community centers around the country have been singled out in a deluge of Islamophobic rhetoric and even acts of intimidation, such as theQuran burning set to take place on the anniversary of September 11 in Florida. Our constitutional rights, as well as the tolerant vision of our founding fathers, are at risk.
In response, we must pray with our feet.














With the first cup of tea you are an invited stranger. With the second cup, you are a friend. And with the third cup of tea, you are family. Such is the custom for welcoming guests in Central Asia and most symbolic for Greg Mortenson the co-author of the New York Times #1 bestseller 
