Joachim Prinz, Martin Luther King Jr., and Their Fight Against Silence
October 18, 2021
When white German rabbi Joachim Prinz delivered sermons opposing the content of Hitler’s laws, he and his family were exiled, landing in America in 1937. But Prinz soon realized that Black people’s treatment in America paralleled much of Jewish people’s in Germany: both faced discrimination and segregation. Meanwhile, Martin Luther King Jr., age six in 1935, noticed the injustices Black Americans people faced; as he grew up, he spoke out in his church as a reverend and protested on the streets. United in their fight for justice, Prinz and MLK became mutual supporters. Ades’s prose is affecting and effective in its directness: “In Germany, he had seen what could happen when people stood by while their neighbors suffered.” Fedele’s art evokes paintings and line drawings in a retro palette, offering a rich complement to this striking narrative of interfaith, cross-cultural support for equality. Back matter includes a timeline, photographs, glossary, and further reading. Ages 4–10.