Heschel and the Vietnam War

  • YOU HAVE TO BE CONSISTENT

    SUSANNAH HESCHEL: My father was not a pacifist and he was not a communist sympathizer by any means. But killing civilians — that was unacceptable. Anyway my father terribly concerned about the war in Vietnam ‘63, ‘64, ‘65. He and a few people from Union Seminary and friends, Christian friends held a press conference as clergy, as theologians to protest the war in Vietnam. The Berrigans were with them, William Sloane Coffin, who was then chaplain at Yale University, John Bennett, and several others. At the end of the press conference-- by the way, Richard John Newhouse who was then Lutheran, became Catholic later-- At the end of the press conference one of the reporters said, “Alright you're against the war but now what are you going to do about it?” And my father said, “We are founding an organization of clergy and laymen against the war in Vietnam.” And the others looked at him, “We are?” But they did.

    MICHAEL LERNER: So it was a courageous thing for him to do and a wonderful thing for him to do, but it was not calculated. He didn't think that way, he thought about what the moral obligation is, not how is this going to affect me if I speak of that moral obligation. He heard God's voice telling him to tell the American people and tell American Jews, you can't support this war anymore. You’ve got to stop this war, killing is not the way, and killing is never a path to peace. All that killing ever does is give you a momentary stop in the killing and then new killing happens. So he was a man of deep integrity in relationship to that war, but it hurt him.

    CORNEL WEST: Rabbi Heschel was farther ahead than Martin [Luther King] when it came to Vietnam. He’s the one that put pressure on Martin, along with Stokely Carmichael, Vincent Harding, and others to come out against the war. It was Heschel who introduced him at Riverside Church on April 4th, 1967, one year before Martin was murdered and assassinated. It was Heschel who said, you have to be consistent, Martin. You can’t condemn violence in Alabama and Mississippi and not also condemn violence in Vietnam. You have to acknowledge the ways in which our own country is a larger conveyor of violence in the world. That’s exactly what Martin did on that April 4th, 1967 day, and that speech got him in deeper trouble too.

    BENJAMIN SAX: Martin Luther King strongly encouraged Heschel to play a role in the civil rights movement even when it was unpopular within his own Jewish community to take public stances the way that he did. Heschel encouraged Martin Luther King in the same way to take a stance against the Vietnam War that might have been unpopular too in the broader community too, for the sake of justice. That somehow in both of their concerns for the prophetic impulse and prophetic religiosity, they have to look beyond their own present circumstances and how they’ll be received by their communities and the broader community, and essentially do what is right. The prophet doesn’t think about her or his own destiny in relation to the rest of the community. You do it because it’s the right thing to do.

    SUSANNAH HESCHEL: My father encouraged Dr. King to speak out against the war and it was under the auspices of Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam that Dr King gave that speech. Yes, my father came to the conclusion that he should encourage Dr. King. And part of it was also, what murder was being committed in our name, by our government? Murdering people in Vietnam. We were taking our young men, at the time and turning them into murderers. What does it do to them? And who was being taken to this war to kill? Young Black men. And what kind of money are we spending to wage a war over there, to destroy a country, when we have people here living in utter poverty?

    THE PRICE TO PAY

    BENJAMIN SAX: When he came out against the Vietnam War for example, there were a lot of Jewish presses and a lot of Jewish leadership that spoke out against him. There was a lot of criticism about his leadership, about his point of view - he was considered naive. Worse he was considered theologically naive. That what he was doing was undermining the safety of his own people and undermining the safety of our country. And that aspiring to these universal, patriotic values was something that at least many in the Jewish community wanted to put out there even if they were uncomfortable with the reasons why we were in Vietnam. And so, it also put his reputation at risk.

  • As already noted, Heschel was an early opponent of the Vietnam War. He saw it as an act of violence against God as well as against fellow human beings, and by organizing Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam (CALCAV), Heschel sought to bring leaders of different religious traditions together to oppose the war. Heschel’s stance was controversial within the Jewish community and outside of it---he attracted the attention of the FBI---but it was he as much as anyone who helped bring Martin Luther King, Jr. into the anti-war movement, adding a powerful voice to the cause. Heschel introduced King when the latter came out against the war in a famous speech at New York City’s Riverside Church in April 1967. Once, when asked why he was participating in one of many demonstrations against the war, Heschel responded that it was because he could not pray. “Whenever I open the prayer book,” he explained, “I see before me images of children burning from napalm.” For Heschel, it was impossible to speak about God and remain silent about the violence, terror, and injustice of Vietnam. In Heschel’s view, the war undermined the very values of justice, mercy, and compassion that he and the prophets before him had lived by.

  • 1. Why was Heschel’s vocal and very visible opposition to the Vietnam War so controversial in some quarters of American Judaism? What did American Jews have to lose by opposing the war? What might they gain by supporting it?

    2. What was the basis for Heschel’s opposition to the Vietnam War? How did he relate the teachings of the prophets to what was happening in Vietnam? Why did Heschel view the fight against Hitler in World War II as necessary, while the Vietnam War was a tragic and deeply unjust event?

    3. Why did Heschel, King, and other members of CALCAV hold a prayer vigil in Arlington Cemetery in February 1968? What was the significance of bringing the Torah scrolls to that protest? Do you think Heschel, King, and the others were taking a great risk?

    4. Benjamin Sax suggests that, by opposing the Vietnam War, Heschel was “putting at risk his life’s work to do the right thing,” and that Heschel was aware of what his actions might cost him. Do you agree with this assessment?

    5. Several commentators suggest that, by taking controversial public stands, such as opposition to the Vietnam War, King and Heschel sometimes found themselves socially or politically isolated. Nonetheless, they had each other to lean on, support, and take inspiration from. How do you envision their relationship? What do you imagine were its primary attributes?