We Wanted to Bind Up Wounds:
Listening to Rabbi Jerome Grollman

In the late summer and fall of 2007, Rabbi Randy [Fleischer of Central Reform Congregation] and I spent several sessions interviewing Jerome Grollman at his home off Ladue Road. We were preparing the award for the Heschel-King celebration of Jews United for Justice (JUJ), in the third year of that memorial/celebration.

About the Heschel–King celebration:
There is a famous picture of Abraham Joshua Heschel, rabbi, human being, interpreter of inner Judaism and prophetic Judaism, walking with Martin Luther King, jr., preacher, prophet, activist, redeemer,
walking together in the front row of the marchers, Selma, 1965.

King and Heschel walking arm in arm, the famous commentary by Heschel --“I felt as if I was praying with my feet.”

Look at the picture of Heschel and King again,
this emblem of deep connection
bound at the arms they are,
bound by the legs they are
the pictorial story of Black Jewish history together,
a chronicle of what was
and hope for a return to coalition,
good intention, hope.

Our freedom stories have been told
in the same story,
King and Heschel claimed the Exodus story as the freedom story,
the prophets as freedom agents,
we are characters in each other’s freedom story.

Every year since 2003, JUJ has presented the Heschel-King celebration to honor the historic freedom story of Jewish-Americans and African-Americans in coalition working toward justice. In 2007, the celebration honored Jerome Grollman and Norman Seay.

Rabbi Grollman loved telling his story. He told it to us more than once, lingering over the same details with clarity and delight. I felt we were giving him a gift, not so much by honoring him publicly, but by taking the time to receive his story.

Here is the beginning of his tale:
We Wanted to Bind Up Wounds
The story of Rabbi Grollman

Rabbi Jerome Grollman came to St. Louis in 1948
to this place the United Hebrew Congregation.
The heights and lows of his career
lights and darks --
when Rabbi Grollman mentioned the lights
he might tear,
when Rabbi Grollman mentioned the darks
he might tear.
What were some of the heights?

There was a group of us that met at Jewish Hospital
every two weeks for breakfast.
We wanted to bind up wounds.
It was an 8 AM meeting
I used to get there at 8:15
I had breakfast at home.
One of the biggest events in those days --
the Jefferson Bank business
oh -- also the city Board of Education
and the Globe Democrat Person of the Year.
The group that met at Jewish Hospital
had what to do.
We went to the Jefferson Bank protests
supported them.
There were some difficulties in our town
about race and religion.

He talked to us about his experiences on the front line in the struggles of the Sixties, his experience with Dr. King, the marches, the politics of the time, his work in the congregation, his life as a rabbi. At the end of the tale, he summed up his work life this way:

I had to do what was right
I was always this way
even when I was a kid.

I was a rabbi at the right time
I loved preaching.
There’s no preaching
Anymore.
It’s been a nice ride.
I believe social justice is religion in action
I wouldn’t have become a rabbi if not for that.
God has been good to me
I was the kind of rabbi I wanted to be.

Rabbi James Stone Goodman
St. Louis

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