Graphic of the post for the commemorative event, NAACP Lakeview Branch
On May 12, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Lakeview, on the other side of Ocean Avenue from Malverne, to support school desegregation. In fact, the Malverne school district, which comprised these two communities and North Lynbrook, was the first in the state to be forcefully desegregated, bringing out the worst and the best in the people of the community.
One of the best was the Malverne Jewish Center’s Rabbi Samuel Chiel, of blessed memory, who advocated strongly for the integration of the district’s schools, and offered classroom space in the synagogue to create a Freedom School. This meant that students from the Woodfield Road School in Lakeview could continue their education while their parents boycotted the school in protest of NY State’s refusal to act due to court challenges.
There was pushback within the congregation, and the community. Rabbi Chiel and congregants were stopped on the street and asked how they could possibly support desegregation, and some congregants chose to leave the synagogue. Others championed the cause. “White flight” wasn’t limited to the Jewish community; parents began sending their children to the many Catholic schools in the area in response, and only recently has that begun to change.
It’s often said that we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, and it was Rabbi. Chiel’s activism–and learning that in 1962 the synagogue had a Social Action Committee–which prompted me to reach out to the Lakeview NAACP and ask to participate in the 60th anniversary commemoration of Dr. King’s visit.
I’m in my 10th year as the rabbi of the Malverne Jewish Center, but I’m old enough to have lived through this time, and I can tell you exactly where I was when I heard that Dr. King had been assassinated. I remember a Black couple coming to look at our house for sale, and when they left, the neighbor across the street screaming at my father threatening him. I also learned that as a Jewish family, we weren’t so welcome on the street, which is why we were moving to begin with.
I wasn’t raised to be an activist, and I hate large crowds, so I tend to stay away from huge rallies. I was raised to treat people the way I want to be treated, to see beyond differences that are only skin-deep, and that as a Jew, it’s my obligation to help make the world a better place.
On Sunday, May 18, 2025, I joined many others in the communities of Malverne and Lakeview to begin a commemoration at the Lakeview Public Library (formerly the Woodfield Road School) to hear from Frederick, a man who had to break the front window of his house to get his bicycle and get to the library in time to hear Dr. King that day. Yes, he “got a whoopin’” when he got home, but he also got his head patted by Dr. King. Alongside the Malverne High School band, we marched to the school for another ceremony, where I was blessed and honored to offer a closing blessing.
The following evening, the high school presented a program with a panel of alumni, some who lived through this time and more recent graduates. Both programs were powerful and allowed me to be a witness to history.
Here, I share the blessing I presented. May we be blessed to see the Face of God in each person we meet.
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This morning, I re-read Dr. King’s “I have a Dream” speech given on August, 28, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He said, “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men–yes, Black men as well as white men–would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
“It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.”
Sixty years later, 160 years after the Civil War, here we are, not just commemorating an anniversary of a historic event, but also acknowledging how much has changed, and how much has not. The idea that in the year 2025 we still have to march and fight for the rights of Black people, brown people, Jews, Muslims, the LGBTQ community and everyone who is marginalized, makes me wonder if it were all for nothing.
The Israelites were strangers in the Land of Egypt for more than 400 years, and no fewer than 36 times does the Torah remind us to care for the stranger in our community. It is that faith and that commitment that led the Malverne Jewish Center’s Rabbi, Samuel Chiel of blessed memory, to advocate for integration in Malverne’s schools, and to open a Freedom School for students of the Woodfield Road School, in the Malverne Jewish Center. He truly believed that we are all equal and that segregation was wrong. Sadly, not everyone agreed with him, and there was a lot of push-back from the Malverne community.
There’s a famous photograph of Dr. King and his close friend Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marching together in Selma, where Heschel later said, “I felt my feet were praying.” And to make a further connection, Rabbi Heschel was one of Rabbi Chiel’s teachers at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Today, our feet are praying. Our voices are lifted in song and prayer. Heavenly Creator, who said to the angels in Genesis, Na-aseh adam b’tzalmeinu kid mutaynu, “Let us make the human in our image, in our likeness,” bless and strengthen this holy community that has come together in solidarity to acknowledge the past and work towards a better future. Support us and keep us from falling into the abyss of despair as we again fight for the rights of all people to be embraced and cherished as valuable individuals.
Remind us that being created in Your Image, in the Divine Image, means two things. One, that you look like all of us here, and that each of our faces reflect Yours, and two, that our task here on earth is to be your partner in creating a more perfect world. May we be blessed going forth and carry the feelings and emotions we feel today, forward.
As The holy Blessed One instructed Aaron to bless the people, I ask that God now bless us… Yivarekh’kha Adonai v’yish-m’rekha, May God bless you and protect you.
Ya-eir Adonai panav aylekha vi’khuneka, May God’s light shine on you and may God be gracious to you
Yisah Adonai panav aylekha v’asem l’kha Shalom, May God’s face be turned towards you, and may God grant you peace.
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