The MLK Shabbat Suppers focused on the theme of educational

“The MLK Shabbat Suppers focused on the theme of educational inequity, which Dr. King considered inextricably linked to the struggle for equality and justice.” — Lynn Schusterman

In these profound words, Lynn Schusterman weaves together two sacred traditions — faith and justice — and reminds us that education is not merely the pursuit of knowledge, but a moral battleground upon which the destiny of equality is fought. Her reflection upon the MLK Shabbat Suppers, gatherings that unite Jewish and African American communities in shared remembrance and dialogue, calls back to the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who saw the classroom as both a temple of liberation and a mirror of society’s deepest injustices. In her voice echoes the timeless conviction that to deny education is to deny freedom itself.

From the days of ancient prophets to the civil rights struggles of the modern age, the pursuit of justice has always required illumination — the light of learning that reveals truth and dispels ignorance. Dr. King, a preacher and a scholar, understood that true equality could not be achieved through law alone, but through the transformation of the mind. He believed that educational inequity — the deliberate or systemic deprivation of opportunity — was one of the cruelest forms of oppression, for it shackled the soul before the body. Where knowledge is withheld, the future itself is stolen.

The MLK Shabbat Suppers, as Schusterman describes, are not mere meals but acts of remembrance and recommitment. Around the table, faith and conscience meet; reflection becomes renewal. The Jewish observance of Shabbat, a time of peace and reflection, joins hands with King’s dream of racial and social harmony, showing that justice is not the mission of one people, but of all humankind. In gathering to discuss educational inequity, participants confront a truth that spans generations: that the fight for justice must begin with the mind, for it is through learning that hearts are opened and societies healed.

History bears witness to this sacred link between education and equality. In the wake of the American Civil War, newly freed men and women of color built schools with their own hands, often under threat of violence, because they knew what their former masters had long known — that knowledge is power. In places like Freedmen’s schools and later the great halls of Tuskegee Institute, education became an act of resistance, a declaration that the mind of the oppressed was not the property of the oppressor. Dr. King walked in the legacy of these builders of hope, knowing that justice without education is a dream unrooted.

Schusterman’s words also bridge two moral traditions — the Jewish commitment to tikkun olam, or the repair of the world, and King’s Christian vision of the Beloved Community. Both traditions teach that faith without action is empty, and that learning without purpose is vanity. To speak of educational inequity in the context of faith is to say that ignorance is not merely a social failing but a moral wound upon the soul of a nation. The MLK Shabbat Suppers thus become a sacred act — a joining of minds and spirits to heal what centuries of injustice have broken.

Yet Schusterman’s reminder carries an unspoken warning: that the fight for equality is never complete. Inequity in education still festers in hidden corners — in underfunded schools, in barriers to higher learning, in the subtle prejudices that dictate who receives opportunity and who is left behind. The struggle for justice, as Dr. King taught, is not a chapter in history but a calling renewed in every age. Each generation must ask itself: are we building a world where every child can rise, or one where the ladder of learning grows ever steeper?

Let this be the lesson drawn from her words: education is the foundation of justice, and justice is the soul of freedom. The sacred duty of every citizen is not only to seek knowledge for themselves, but to ensure its light reaches others. Attend to the schools in your community. Mentor the young. Speak against systems that bind the mind while pretending to uplift the body. For as Lynn Schusterman reminds us, in the spirit of Dr. King, equality is not achieved by words alone, but by the tireless work of ensuring that every human being — regardless of race, faith, or circumstance — has the chance to learn, to grow, and to fulfill the promise of their own potential.