A reader named Pam Medelsohn wrote to the Forward this week. She is 75 years old and lives in Arcata, Calif.; a cancer survivor,  the author of two books, and a disability-rights advocate who made 18 trips to the Soviet Union to give workshops how to use the media for social change. Pam was going through boxes in her basement and found the Rosh Hashanah sermon that her childhood rabbi, Robert E. Goldburg, gave at Cong. Mishkan Israel in Hamden, Conn., in 1963. It's titled, in the parlance of the time, "Judaism, the Jews, and the Negro revolt." Pam, then 18, must have asked for a copy because, as she put it, she and her friends all agree that "Rabbi Goldburg was responsible in a major way for our involvement in civil rights."

"Reading it now reminds me of what an important message he delivered that day and how totally relevant it is to what's going on right now," Pam wrote. "I remember Rabbi Goldburg explaining that to be a good Jewish person means to be useful -- that really made much sense to me,"​ 

Pam also sent the sermon to the congregation's current rabbi, Brian Immerman, who plans to invoke Rabbi Goldburg's words in his own sermon this Shabbat. "I was aggrieved by the sentence, 'Our response to the Negro revolution will determine the character of our country for generations to come," Rabbi Immerman wrote to Pam, inserting -- as I am here -- a screenshot of the typewritten page.

"We certainly have made progress, but clearly we did not respond with enough force back then," Rabbi Immerman continued. "I can only pray that we embrace this current revolution and seize the opportunity to truly make our country a bastion of peace for ALL."

Today's Jewish communities are responding to the Black Lives Matter movement with force, seizing the opportunities for change, and our report this week was again dominated by the protests. Jonathan Kaufman, author of the 1988 book "Broken Alliances," offered a historical perspective on black-Jewish coalitions, and our contributor Carly Pildis explained that 'You don't have to choose between Black Lives Matter and Israel.' We looked at how the shofar has been used in demonstrations, and we've got a Talmudic take as well.  If you don't have time to read now, you can download or print via this blue button.