Parashat Noach, November 4, 2016; 4 Heshvan 5777
Arthur Lelyveld was bleeding badly. Lelyveld was the senior rabbi at Fairmount Temple in Cleveland. He had come down to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to help register black voters as part of Freedom Summer in 1964. He was returning at the end of the day with two white civil rights workers and two local African American women whom they had registered. Two thugs attacked him and the other men and beat them with tire irons. They all survived, but “Rabbi Lelyveld was hospitalized with a deep gash over his right eye, a cut over his left ear, and bruises on his chest and abdomen.” The two attackers received a suspended sentence and a fine of $500.
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