My Legs Were Praying

Tuesdays, October 6-November 3, 1:30-3:00 p.m. (5 sessions) Course FEE: $125 General; $100 Skirball Members; $75 Full-Time Students Registration for this course begins online, on site, and by phone on Wednesday, August 12, at 12:00 p.m. Speaking at a conference on religion and race in 1963, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel remarked, "The exodus from slavery began long ago, but it is far from over. It was easier for an Israelite to cross the Red Sea than for a Negro to cross certain university campuses."

Invoking the imagery of the Hebrew Bible in the struggle for civil rights, Heschel echoed another notable speaker at the conference, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Two years later, the distinguished pair marched side by side from Selma to Montgomery to protest the denial of voting rights to black Americans. Heschel later said, "I felt my legs were praying."

Through lectures and group discussion of their biographies, writings, and speeches—with special attention to the biblical sources that inspired them—this course will explore the spiritual kinship of Heschel and King and its legacy for our times. Presented in anticipation of the exhibition Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956–1968, opening at the Skirball on November 19.

Instructor: Dr. Robert Kirschner is Skirball museum director and senior scholar-in-residence, and author of Divine Things: Seeking the Sacred in a Secular Age. He is a gifted teacher and lecturer, as well as an ordained rabbi.