Temple Solel Jewish Heritage Journey Along the Civil Rights Trail

Led by Rabbi Debbie Stiel and Etgar 36 — March 27 -30, 2025

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to walk with your fellow Temple Solel
congregants in the footsteps of giants. We need at least 22 participants to make
this 4-day trip to the American South become a reality.
The fight for American civil rights spanned decades, cities and states. Walk
with us through Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma and Atlanta. See firsthand the
struggle for equality. If you choose to join us, you will have the opportunity to
meet with activists who worked and strategized with Dr. King, as well as, people
who participated in the march from Selma to Montgomery. You will visit several
civil rights museums and sites, the Equal Justice Initiative, and attend a service at
the Ebenezer Baptist Church. You will learn about the Jewish involvement in the
Movement and how our Passover story correlates so strongly with the Civil Rights
story. Civil Rights is not an issue that only impacted a specific people in the 1950’s
and 60’s. It is an ongoing issue today, being fought for by a variety of groups that
have not felt they had a voice in the world. Become empowered and inspired to
make a difference.

Sample Itinerary: subject to change.

ADULT CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNEY

THURSDAY (Travel Day) – March 27

Pick up at airport (if you come in on the group flight)

Go over theme of journey

Leo Frank Story

Hear the story of Leo Frank, a New York Jew who moved to Atlanta, was falsely convicted of murder and was lynched. This has impacted the identity of Jews in the South since it occurred in 1915

No Host Dinner

FRIDAY – March 28

Breakfast at hotel

7:30 AM Leave for Montgomery, AL

9 AM Contextualization talk of events leading to Rosa Parks arrest and bus boycott

9:30 AM Rosa Parks Museum

Stand where the Civil Rights movement began and learn about the Montgomery Bus Boycott

10:45 AM Depart for lunch

11 AM Lunch

1:30 PM Memorial for Peace and Justice – Lynching Memorial

Reflect on an often-overlooked tragedy at the first national memorial for victims of lynching

3 PM Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum

Explore the evolution of racial oppression from slavery to mass incarceration

5:15 PM Depart for Shabbat services

6:00 PM Friday Night Services

Dinner brought to hotel, cost of this meal is included in your tour fee

Hotel: Fairfield Inn

SATURDAY – March 29

Breakfast at hotel

8:00 AM Leave for Selma

9:00 AM Tour Selma & The Edmund Pettus Bridge

Meet with someone who was beaten on the march. Hear her story

Learn about Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and his involvement in the struggle.

11:30 PM Depart for Birmingham and Lunch

1:00  PM Lunch 

2:15 PM Contextualization talk about Birmingham

Walking tour of Freedom Park & 16th Street Baptist Church

Get a walking tour by a Reverend who was a Civil Rights worker in Birmingham in the 50s & 60s and was

arrested and had the dogs & hoses turned on him. See the historic church where 4 girls died in a bombing.

3:30 PM Depart for Atlanta

7:30 PM No Host Dinner Dinner 

SUNDAY – March 30

Breakfast at hotel

8:15 AM Depart hotel

9:00 AM Sunday morning services at Ebenezer Baptist Church

Dr. King’s historic church

10:15 AM Tour the King Center and tour the Auburn Street neighborhood

See the historic neighborhood where King was born, preached and is buried

11:00 AM No Host Lunch on own at Ponce City Market Place

12:45 PM Depart for airport and home

3:30 PM Earliest that return flights should depart