The very walls of Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, D.C., carry a rich interfaith history.
Opened in 1908, the building was home to Adas Israel Congregation for 45 years before the space was purchased by Turner Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church, which worshiped there for the next half century until relocating in the early 2000s. Although the church members wanted the space to remain a house of worship, the highest bidder was from someone who planned to turn it into a nightclub, according to Rabbi Aaron Potek, the senior rabbi at Sixth & I.
A last-minute change ensured that Sixth & I gained ownership of the building and it has been a center for arts, entertainment and Jewish life for the past two decades. The synagogue held its first Martin Luther King Jr. Shabbat service in January 2005, to “honor the shared history of the space,” Potek said.
Sixth & I held its 21st annual MLK Shabbat service on Jan. 17 with a focus on freedom and justice. About 350 attendees showed up for the event, featuring a performance by Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ’s choir and remarks from entrepreneur Dr. Imani Romney-Rosa Chapman about direct action and collectivity.
“It continues to be one of our most meaningful programs each year,” Potek said. “Our MLK Shabbat service aims to revive the history of our building, to commemorate the civil rights work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and to reinforce the importance of building interfaith coalitions in the pursuit of justice.”
Just down the road, in 1963, King addressed a citywide meeting at Adas Israel Congregation as the head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
When King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, Adas Israel opened its doors to hundreds of students who needed a place to sleep that night, served them breakfast and refreshments in the morning, and provided its auditorium and parking lot for rallies, according to Oz Papados, the co-chair of Adas Israel’s social action committee.
Adas Israel hosted a Friday night Shabbat service and “MLK Weekend” from Jan. 17 to 19 in a continuation of a tradition that dates back to the early 2000s. The service, featuring Adas Israel rabbis and the minister of People’s Congregational United Church of Christ, was followed by a dinner with D.C. attorney general Brian Schwalb, who discussed the “challenges that lay ahead with the incoming [presidential] administration,” especially as they relate to the District.
Papados said it is unfortunate that Americans are still talking about achieving the “dream” from King’s iconic speech more than 60 years later. But despite any setbacks or challenges, Papados and Jill Chessen, also a co-chair of the social action committee, believe in using King as a symbol of continuing to advance civil rights.
“He [gave] us hope and encourage[d] us to keep fighting for social equality and racial justice,” Chessen said.
Adas Israel hosted a Shabbat morning service on Jan. 18 in honor of MLK Jr. Adas Israel member Karen Dunn, who served as the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the civil suit against the organizers of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, delivered the sermon “The Fight for Just Laws and Against Unjust Laws: The Story of MLK, Exodus and Hope for the Next Four Years.”
“It’s such an important time to remember the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to celebrate the victories of the Civil Rights Movement, especially how Jews were a part of that and fought hard along with all the people of color who have been fighting for centuries,” Chessen said.
After the service, attendees discussed immigration and the role of the United States government and nonprofit organizations in a conversation with former State Department official Larry Bartlett, moderated by an official from Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a century-old nonprofit based in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Adas Israel closed out the weekend with a Sunday Day of Service, during which about 100 volunteers manned advocacy tables dedicated to supporting the aging unhoused population and reproductive justice. Various stations allowed participants to cook hot meals with the Chesed committee, make sandwiches for people in need, pack dignity kits and welcome refugees primarily from Afghanistan and provide respite for refugee parents, Papados said.
“I would like to … convey to people that activism, involvement, volunteering doesn’t have to be a heavy lift,” Papados said. “It can be broken down into bite-size actions or contributions.”
While Montgomery County schools and offices were closed on Jan. 20 for MLK Jr. Day, more than 170 volunteers, ranging in age from 10 to 92, got to work building playhouses in Rockville for area families in need.
Beginning in 2022, the Bender Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington’s Delivering Good Network partnered with Habitat for Humanity to bring youth of different faith backgrounds together for the “common goal of supporting affordable housing,” said Lauren Dworkin, the JCC’s director of community engagement and social action.
Dworkin said she collaborated with Pastor Tim Warner, the director for faith relations at Habitat for Humanity, to coordinate the Jan. 20 event, Bender JCC’s third playhouse-building opportunity.
“Tim and I chose MLK Day because they call it a ‘day off’ from school, but a ‘day on’ for service,” Dworkin said.
She described the “shining moment” during which people from 10 different faith communities worked side by side: “That felt like a really powerful moment.”
“The Delivering Good Network and Habitat for Humanity are going to bring together all these different groups to build playhouses, and we’re going to build relationships and build bridges, and hopefully all these things can be built in the light and the memory and honor of MLK,” Dworkin said.
