To Stand Aside or Stand Alone: Southern Reform Rabbis and the Civil Rights Movement

In1966,ayoungrabbinicalstudentnamedP.AllenKrauseconductedinterviewswithtwelve Reform rabbis from southern congregations concerning their thoughts, principles, and activities as they related to the civil rights movement. Perhaps because he was a young seminary student or more likely because the interviewees were promised an embargo of twenty-five years before the interviews would be released to the public, the rabbis were extremely candid about their opinions on and their own involvement with what was still an incendiary subject. Now, in To Stand Aside or Stand Alone, their stories help elucidate a pivotal moment in time.

Steve Krause is an attorney in the San Francisco Bay area. He graduated magna cum laude from the Boston University School of Law in 1996 with a concentration in negotiation and dispute resolution. Krause’s Law Review article, “Punishing the Press: Using Contempt of Court to Secure the Right to a Fair Trial,” published in 1996, has been cited around the world as a primary authority in cases of media indiscretion in high-profile criminal trials. Krause’s father, P. Allen Krause obm was a congregational rabbi for over forty years, devoting his rabbinate to issues of human rights, social justice, and interfaith understanding.