February 10-12, 2025
Led by Rabbi Mitchell Berkowitz

$995 per person based on double occupancy (land only)

Click here to register by December 16.

After a successful Civil Rights trip in 2024, B'nai Israel is excited to offer this opportunity to our community again.

Join us for this important experience. This special Civil Rights journey uses the history, sites, and current issues as a springboard to highlight the relationship, and at times, the tension, of the Jewish and American identity. The journey will be a mix of fun, sightseeing, education, and meetings with organizations and people who have been and are still involved in creating America.

Participants will learn about the struggles of African Americans to gain equality in the 1950s & 60s and explore how Jews were involved in the struggle for Civil Rights. Participants will walk away understanding why Jews, as people who have known oppression, must care and act when others are oppressed.

Sample Itinerary (subject to change):

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10
By 11:00 AM Meet at Atlanta airport
Go to downtown Atlanta
Tour Auburn Ave and King Center Neighborhood and Tomb, Leo Frank Story
Explore the area that Dr. King was born, grew up, and is buried in. See Old Ebenezer Church where 3 generations of King family preached. Pay our respects at Dr. Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King’s tomb.
12:30 PM Lunch on own at Ponce City Market
1:30 PM Depart for Birmingham
4:00 PM Context talk by Etgar 36 and Introduction of Birmingham and it’s crucial
role in the Civil Rights Movement
4:30 PM Walking tour of Freedom Park and 16th Street Baptist Church
Participate in a walking tour with a Reverend who was a Civil Rights worker in Birmingham in the 50s and 60s. He was arrested and had the dogs and hoses turned on him. See the historic church where 4 girls died in a bombing.
6:00 PM Dinner on own at Pizitz Food Hall
7:00 PM Civil Rights Experience at Congregation Beth El
Hotel: Fairfield Inn Colonnade Birmingham, AL
 
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11
Continental Breakfast at hotel
7:30 AM Bus will be open for participants to put bags on the bus
8:00 AM Depart for Selma
9:45 AM Tour of Selma and Walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge
Meet with someone who was took part in the Bloody Sunday March at 11 years
old. Hear their story.
Learn about Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and his involvement in the struggle.
End by walking in their footsteps across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
11:45 AM Depart for Montgomery
1:00 PM Lunch at Martha’s Place
3:00 PM Contextualization talk of events leading to Rosa Parks arrest and bus boycott
3:30 PM Rosa Parks Museum
Stand where the Civil Rights movement began and learn about the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
5:00 PM Mothers of Gynecology Monument and Southern Poverty Law Center Civil Rights Memorial
Evening: Dinner on own in downtown Montgomery
Hotel: Fairfield Inn Eastchase, Montgomery, AL
 
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12
Continental Breakfast at hotel
7:45 AM Bus will be open for participants to put bags on the bus
8:15 AM Depart for downtown
9:00 AM Equal Justice Initiative’s Memorial to Peace and Justice
Reflect on an often overlooked tragedy at the first national memorial for victims
of lynching.
10:00 AM Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum
Explore the evolution of racial oppression from slavery to mass incarceration.
11:45 PM Pizza and salad lunch
12:15 PM Equal Justice Initiative’s Sculpture Garden
1:30 PM Depart for Atlanta airport
5:00 PM Arrive Atlanta airport
7:00 PM Earliest flights out of Atlanta

Click here to register by December 16.