“The whole world must see that Israel must exist and has a right to exist – and is one of the great outposts of democracy in the world.”
These are the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a towering voice for moral clarity and a staunch advocate for the Jewish state. At a time when many are attempting to divide Israel from the Jewish faith, it is worth recalling how this iconic civil rights leader championed the Jewish people’s right to self-determination.
For this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 19, always the third Monday of January), it is important to revisit not only his dream of racial equality in America, but also his clarity about the disease of antisemitism.
“When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews,” he often said. “You’re talking antisemitism.”
Anti-Zionism is antisemitism
Today, the orchestration by both the far Left and the far Right to bifurcate Israel from the Jewish people stands in direct contradiction to King’s message of peace and love for the Jewish nation.
As I recently explained in a discussion with our newly elected mayor, Zohran Mamdani, anti-Zionism is antisemitism. The State of Israel has restored the honor and dignity of the Jewish people, and its demonization only fuels physical attacks on Jews in New York and around the world.
Israel is a manifestation of the Jewish people’s collective self-determination. Zionism is a social justice movement that began in pursuit of a safe haven for Jews from global antisemitism after more than 2,000 years of oppression and persecution.
King's support for Israel
In March 1968, just weeks before his assassination, King addressed the Rabbinical Assembly in New York. His words were unequivocal: “Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all of our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity.” He went on to describe Israel as “one of the great outposts of democracy in the world,” language preserved in contemporaneous accounts and archival collections.
King’s support for Israel was not political posturing. It flowed directly from his understanding of oppression and liberation. He recognized what it meant for a people to be denied sovereignty, safety, and dignity. He saw in the Jewish people’s return to Israel a moral parallel to the Black struggle and the pursuit of equality.
The civil rights leader also warned against moral double standards. He understood how political language can be used to deny the legitimacy of a people while claiming the mantle of justice. Just as he confronted coded racism directed at Black Americans, he recognized the danger of rhetoric that singled out Jews by denying their collective right to self-determination.
King believed deeply in peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. He supported a political solution that would allow both peoples to live with dignity and security. But he never suggested that peace required the dismantling of the Jewish state. Peace, in his vision, was built on mutual recognition, not erasure.
A moral contradiction
Calls to deny Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish democracy are often framed as progressive. King would have recognized this for what it is: a moral contradiction.
Judaism is not merely a body of faith: It is a peoplehood rooted for thousands of years in its ancestral Land of Israel. To bifurcate Israel from the Jewish religion is to deny Jewish identity itself.
King believed justice is indivisible. You cannot fight racism while tolerating antisemitism. And you cannot champion liberation while denying Jews the same right.
The question is not what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would say today – he already told us. The question is whether we are prepared to listen.
The writer is a rabbi and president of the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding. He is the author of Shared Dreams: Martin Luther King Jr. & the Jewish Community.