A Roman Incident

HERST, ROGER E.

Moment of Truth A Roman Incident When I took my place on the pulpit only three hours after John Kennedy's assassination, the faces before me were blank. Despite the eulogy I delivered, I noted...

...Yet fear is still a strong motivation for resisting change...
...Small southern Jewish communities were permitted to exist not by right but by sufferance...
...Despite the eulogy I delivered, I noted little emotion among my congregants in the small town of Rome, Georgia...
...We will not permit this pulpit to be used for political purposes...
...Leave town immediately...
...What you just did was deplorable...
...The service ended, and a few people came forward to welcome me with the customary wishes for a gut Shabbos...
...They said nothing about the fallen president...
...For some, the lynching of Leo Frank in Georgia 50 years earlier was still as fresh as wet newsprint on the morning paper...
...Go on the first bus tomorrow morning...
...Rabbi, from this moment, consider yourself fired," he said...
...Roger E. Herst Do you have a Moment of Truth, a small experience that changed the way you look at the world...
...Afterwards, the synagogue president asked that I step into his private office...
...I was one of the few students in my class at the Reform Jewish Seminary in Cincinnati who had elected to serve an apprenticeship pulpit in the south...
...Please send it, in 150 words or less, to Moment Editorial, 4710 41st St., NW, Washington, DC 20016, or e-mail: editor@momentmag.com (write "Moment of Truth" on the subject line...
...Many were merchants on main street and were exposed to physical violence and economic boycott...
...In my zeal, I had unwittingly crossed a delicate line: Some felt that by eulogizing such an outspoken civil rights advocate, I was courting anti-Semitism and possibly endangering local Jews...
...I had overlooked how vulnerable southern Jews felt...
...We've all come a long way since then...

Vol. 25 • February 2000 • No. 1


 
Developed by
Kanda Sofware
  Kanda Software, Inc.