Mah Nishma
Choosing To Participate
by Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
One Sunday afternoon last month, a group of eighth graders from our Hebrew school, along with parents, teachers and staff, went to the Boston Public Library in Copley Square to see an exhibit called Choosing To Participate. I don’t usually join in on the school field trips, but this time I did, and I am glad for it because I found myself moved and enlightened by the exhibit.
“Choosing To Participate” is sponsored by Facing History and Ourselves, an excellent organization whose purpose is explained in its mission statement: “By studying the historical development and lessons of the Holocaust and other examples of genocide, students make the essential connection between history and the choices they confront in their own lives.”
Located in the exhibit hall of the beautiful and historic downtown library building, Choosing To Participate is an unassuming collection of artifacts, films and photographs. In several cloth-surrounded booths you can hear and see the stories of four incidents and their heroes. The first one is the story of hate crimes committed in the fall and winter of 1992 in Billings, Montana, and of the community‘s reaction. Anti-Semitic leaflets had been stuffed into mailboxes throughout the fall. Then, on December 2, 1993, the hatred turned into violence. Someone hurled a cinderblock through a child's bedroom window. Taped to the window was a paper menorah to commemorate Chanukah. Though the child was not hurt physically, the terror that this act struck into the hearts of the community brought about a massive response, as pretty much the whole town united and turned out to protest the hate crime. Despite threats and further acts of terrorism, the heroic actions of the townspeople prevailed, and the perpetrators--the Ku Klux Klan and some groups of skinheads--retreated back into their holes.
A second story is that of Elizabeth Eckford, one of the nine high school students whose integration into Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, was ordered by a federal judge in September 1959. Because she didn’t have a telephone, she couldn’t be reached to be told of the ;protective escort that was being organized for their safety. Alone, Ms. Eckford faced the Arkansas National Guard, which had been ordered by the State Governor bar the students’ entrance into the school building. Taunted by the jeers and hateful screaming of white students and parents, she finally returned home. Films and still photographs recorded that fateful day. A particularly moving photograph shows Ms Eckford sitting at a bus stop, right under a stop sign, her dignity untouched by the events that must have had a profound physical, mental and spiritual effect on her.
Yet another story was that of Jesus Colon, a writer of Puerto Rican and African descent whose fear-motivated failure, late one night, to help a white woman burdened with suitcases and three little children resulted in some deep soul searching. As a result of his experience, Colon became a worker for civil rights. Only so could he find his human and divine image again.
The most moving of the stories, however, was that of Arn Chorn. An orphan and survivor of the Cambodian Killing Fields, Arn Chorn was adopted by a minister from the United States and brought to New Hampshire in 1980. He was fourteen then. Facing at first insurmountable challenges, his talent for soccer finally helped him secure some respect among his peers. However, it was mostly due to the hard work of his English as a Second Language teacher that Arn Chorn finally found a way to communicate with the world around him. Today, Today Arn Chorn Pond travels between the United States and Cambodia working on a number of projects with the hope of rebuilding civic and cultural life in Cambodia. His work has earned him numerous humanitarian awards including the Spirit of Anne Frank Award and the Reebok Human Rights Award.
The inspiring stories and pictures we saw and heard moved all of us tremendously. America may have come a long way in civil rights since the 1950’s, but we still have much to do before our goals of integration and equality for all are reached. Sadly, the world around us is still filled with prejudice and hate. One need not look far or overseas for examples. The way many of us, in this most advanced country in the world, still treat newly arrived immigrants, the impoverished among us and members of other minorities is shameful.
As importantly, we all relearned an old lesson--the power of the individual to awaken and unite a whole community. In “choosing to participate,” we can make a huge difference.
The Choosing To Participate exhibition will remain on display at the Boston Public Library at Copley Square until May 20. I strongly recommend you and your family take a couple of hours some Sunday afternoon and go see it. It will not fail to motivate and inspire you for a long time to come.
