UFW marks High Holy Days observances
All of us in the farm worker movement join our sisters and brothers in the Jewish community in honoring the High Holy Days beginning Wednesday, Sept. 24, at sunset with Rosh Hashanah, the start of the Jewish New Year. Active Jewish support and encouragement of our union cause goes back to the beginning of the Delano Grape Strike in 1965. Then, the first institutional religious backing for the farm workers came when boards of rabbis in big Eastern cities declared boycotted products as non-Kosher.
Jewish social justice teachings dovetailed with the social teachings of the Catholic Church; they both profoundly influenced Cesar Chavez. He was often invited to address large congregations at synagogues in major North American cities, especially around Passover. Cesar regularly organized Passover seder services at what is today the National Chavez Center at La Paz in Keene, Calif., the farm worker movement headquarters where he lived and labored his last quarter century, and where he is buried. The story of the Exodus held special meaning for him.
One of Cesar’s favorite biblical passages that he would incorporate in his speeches was from the Book of the Prophet Micah, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Arturo S. Rodriguez, President
United Farm Workers of America