#4: A brief excerpt from ‘Holocaust to Resistance’
It was June 1960, the day after my arrival (in New York City. While I was on 42nd Street in Manhattan, I heard a loud commotion and walked over to investigate. A thick circle of men was gathered around a speaker, who was holding a Bible while pointing to a man in their midst. “You and your people, the Jews, crucified Christ,” the speaker yelled.
I flared up in righteous anger. “Love thy neighbour! That’s what Jesus said,” I responded in a truly thunderous voice. The speaker tried to continue but I kept shouting, “Love thy neighbour!”
I pushed my way through the crowd to the Jewish man. He looked quite shaken. I took him firmly by the arm and walked with him toward the subway. That did it. The speaker tried to push on but the crowd dispersed.
In the years to follow I often reflected on that incident. Yes, it showed the power of love. More precisely, it showed the power of love expressed through determined action — the power of solidarity.