If an obituary or obituaries are to be the basis for a sketch of Rabbi Grafman, I would refer you to those that appeared in the Birmingham News and Birmingham Post Herald, and newspaper editorials as well in the community where he live and ministered for 54 years prior to his 1995 death. Also there is a newspaper piece by the all black Birmingham City Council recognizing his significant role in furthering Birmingham race relations. Rabbi Grafman's Birmingham tenure was summed up in a Birmingham newspaper editorial stating, among other things:
For half a century, Rabbi Grafman was a voice for justice, for peace and for Progress—a voice that could be strong when it was called for, but which always had a distinctly humane quality.
The reference to the “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” in the sketch, moreover, should be in context. That includes the fact that it was not a group of misguided Birmingham ministers (including a rabbi) who believed that the King organized demonstrations were then “unwise and untimely” for which they were harshly criticized by Dr. King. In fact, the ministers and others as discussed below, recognized Birmingham was on the cusp of meaningful racial reform through the judiciary in support of the earlier vote of the Birmingham citizenry relating to the then pending/ultimately ouster in May 1963 (only a month or so after the demonstration) of the racist Bull Connor, Birmingham's Public Safety Commissioner. In the process the ministers also sought to avoid further bloodshed so prevalent in Birmingham during the Connor years. Significantly, the ministers were not alone in this view- their views were shared by among others, the Attorney General of the United States Robert F. Kennedy, the Reverend Billy Graham, the Washington Post, and “much of the national press.”1 The local Birmingham ministers were and still are in many quarters condemned for their views; yet AG Kennedy, Rev. Graham and others who express identical views were not and are not to this day. Various prominent persons took the same position the ministers did, but were not criticized for what was as to both groups a reasonable and rational position even though many were to disagree. In the aftermath of the September 1963 bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church Rabbi Grafman (who passionately spoke out against this dastardly act)2 was invited to the White House with several other prominent Birmingham ministers to meet with President Kennedy which he did within 10 days of the bombing (September 23, 1963) to discuss with the President at the White House, the extraordinarily troublesome times in Birmingham. This trip reflects, among other things, the confidence the White House showed by seeking the advice of Rabbi Grafman which he did in fact offer including a request for black FBI agents in Birmingham. In 1963 Rabbi Grafman was appointed by Birmingham's newly elected (post Connor) Mayor to the newly established bi-racial committee (the first of its kind in Birmingham) charged with implementing desegregation. In 1964, Rabbi Grafman publicly spoke out against the Ku Klux Klan being afforded a booth at the Alabama State Fair. He described the Klan at that time
1 Stephen B. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1982), 217. 2 See the recording of this September 1963 Rosh Hashanah sermon (3 days after the church bombing) on file with AlA. It also is worthy of note that he was one of only a handful of white persons who attended the funeral of the 4 children, even though Rabbi Grafman for security reasons had been cautioned bylaw enforcement officials not to attend. as an organization devoted to hate. A statement of this nature in Birmingham, Alabama at that time took significant courage as those who lived there at that time can attest, including the undersigned. In the aftermath of the Birmingham civil rights struggle, Rabbi Grafman made Temple Emanu El available to Birmingham's newly formed Baptist Church of the Covenant after that church broke away from the First Baptist Church of Birmingham that refused to integrate. Sunday services for the new church were held at Temple Emanu El for some time until the new church was able to construct a permanent home of its own. In a similar vein, Rabbi Grafman is credited by prominent members of the Birmingham Ministerial Association for convincing the membership (which was then all white with Rabbi Grafman the sole Jewish member) to integrate. Various ministers opposed such integration. See The Southern Shofar, July 1995 at p. 20 (statement of Methodist Minister Dr. Denison Franklin, then Association President); see also the book by Dr. .I. Herbert Gilmore, Jr. They Choose to Live: the Racial Agony of an American Church, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids Michigan, 1972 at p.59. Both recollections (of these ministers is to the same effect, and speak volumes. Dr. Franklin stated:
Rabbi Milton Grafman was a member of the [Association] committee [considering integration of the Association.]. I noticed that he had pulled his chair to the end of the table. I requested him to express his convictions on this subject. He hesitated a moment and then said. “This is a matter for the Christian Church to face.” There was silence for moments and then he spoke up... words that I will never forget. With one sweep of his hand he said. “How many of you have read that series of little books called THE NEW TESTAMENT? I have. How many of you ever walked in the footsteps of Jesus Christ? I have. When you read those books and when you walk in His path you will have your answer.”
Dr. Franklin related that those opposing Association integration thereafter withdrew their objections and the pending resolution for integration passed the committee and the full Association unanimously. Several years later, Rabbi Grafman became the first and only rabbi ever elected President of this Association- an organization which at one time had even barred Jews from membership. To put his civil rights role in further perspective the comments of Richard Arrington, Birmingham's first black Mayor, are instructive where he stated: “[Rabbi Grafman] has a high level of credibility among all segments of the community, black as well as whites. He has a long record of working to bring about change and a reputation for being concerned about justice.”3 Rabbi Grafman served on numerous civic committees, including but not limited to Operation New Birmingham's Community Affairs Committee and the Mayor's Police Community Relations Committee each of which confronted major ongoing racial issues. In 1989 (then age 82), he was honored by the African American Westminster Presbyterian Church at Tuskegee, Alabama recognizing him as one known “For Combating Injustice.” In 1990, moreover, Rabbi Grafman publicly condemned exclusion of blacks and woman from the Shoal
3 “The Communicator,” Birmingham Magazine (August 1983): 66. The entirety of this article is also revealing of Rabbi Grafman. Creek Country Club, a private club in the greater Birmingham community. This incident ultimately was resolved successfully attracting national attention in that a PGA golf tournament was to be played at Shoal Creek. Rabbi Grafman’s role in civil rights pre1963 can be seen through an incident that also attracted national attention. In 1956 he withdrew from a pending speaking engagement—refusing to participate in a Religious Emphasis Week at the University of Mississippi because the school at the direction of the Mississippi State Legislature canceled a speaking commitment of an Episcopal minister after this minister voiced support for the NAACP.4 Rabbi Grafman on various other occasions spoke at other educational institutions on behalf of the Jewish Chautauqua Society including but not limited to the African American Tuskegee Institute at Tuskegee, Alabama. In the pre 1963 period, Rabbi Grafman also opposed the Birmingham city government's decision to close its golf course, parks and swimming pools rather than desegregate. He also spoke out against Alabama Guy Hunt when the governor made offensive anti-Semitic remarks. At the time of Rabbi Grafman’s death in 1995, the Reverend Abraham Woods, Jr., a president of the Birmingham Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (an organization founded by Dr, King) was quoted in one of the Birmingham obituaries for Rabbi Grafman stating he disagreed with Rabbi Grafman on various occasions, but respected him as an asset to the city of Birmingham. A significant endorsement of Rabbi Grafman’s civil rights record occurred when, Ozelle Bilingsley, one of the attorneys prominently involved in Dr. King's release from the then infamous Birmingham Jail, attended the funeral of Rabbi Grafman at Temple Emanu El Birmingham, went to the cemetery for the burial service there, and returned thereafter to the Grafman home to pay his personal respects.5 * * * Below is snapshot of other facets of his career that perhaps will provide a still better overall understanding of the man. In 1929 as a 22 year old HUC rabbinic student named Milton Grafman, and as a representative of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, he spent the 1929 High Holiday period in Texas organizing various Jewish communities in South Texas under some very difficult circumstances. In 1933 at the time of ordination, Rabbi Grafman was awarded significant honors at HUC including: the Simon Lazarus prize given in recognition of scholastic achievements diligence and character; the Ella B. Phillipson award for the best essay on a biblical topic; and the Selma Strauss prize for the best essay. His unwavering HUC loyalty continued his entire life. Rabbi Grafman traveled to Nazi Germany, among other places, in the summer of 1938- only a few months after the Anschluss and a few months before Kristallnacht. He was then a participant in a summer abroad European study program. The seminar director Nelson Eddy, a
4 Commencing at this point and for a number of years thereafter, Rabbi Grafman was the subject of various threats to his life including when he criticized certain statements of Governor Wallace on Meet the Press. His criticism of Governor Wallace was, of course, in then Birmingham denominated by Dr. King as the most segregated in the country. It might be added it was during a time when the Klu Klux Klan, White Citizens Councils and the National States Rights Party instill a chilling fear in much of the citizenry. 5 There is a book in progress and various materials are maintained privately until completion. Documentation of various significant facets of Rabbi Grafman’s life is already at AJA. See Out of the Pale, a Grafman Family History. There are not mere reflections of a son therein, but with supporting reference to specific source material. For example, see at pages 272-285 relating to some, not all of Rabbi Grafman's civil rights involvement. national YMCA official at the time, encouraged Rabbi Grafman and the other participating rabbi in the seminar (Rabbi Alfred Minda from Minneapolis) to include Nazi Germany on the tour because he felt they “owed it to their people” to find out first hand the truth of what was occurring there. See Grafman Diary and related material also on file at AJA. This was a courageous undertaking of Rabbis Grafman and Minda. Rabbi Grafman consistency spoke out as a Zionist even though many in his congregation opposed his views in this regard.
I do believe what I have set forth will help you place Rabbi Grafman in better perspective. Thank you for your courtesy in affording me the opportunity to provide my insights.
Stephen W. Grafman October 21, 2011