Mr. Chairman, Reverend Clergy, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>\n
I have the great honor to bring you greetings and blessings from the highest rabbinic tribunal in the world, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada. I am here to express our full solidarity with the heroic struggle waged by awakened courageous Americans of all faiths to assure equal opportunity to our colored fellow citizens.<\/p>\n
There is an old Talmudic saying that proper knowledge and awareness of a problem constitutes half a solution. Let me therefore, at the outset, define in as simple terms as possible, the problem which brought us out here this afternoon.<\/p>\n
As we stand before the Almighty and this great assemblage, let it be declared without any reservations that racial discrimination of any kind, constitutes not only a social misbehavior or a civic crime, but a sin–a great sin, a sin for which, some day, we will be called upon to give an accounting to our Creator. Believing as we do that man was created in the image of G-d, it follows that he who judges his fellow man by the color of his skin debases the divine image of his own face.<\/p>\n