PRINZ: THE COURAGE TO SPEAK

R Squared Productions proudly presents Prinz: The Courage to Speak, a documentary film about controversy, history and the power of a voice.

In Berlin in the 1930's, the civil rights of Jews were systematically stripped away. A young rabbi refused to be silent. His name was Joachim Prinz, and he set out to restore the self-esteem of the German Jews. Knowing the Nazis were monitoring his every word, and despite repeated arrests, Prinz continued to preach about the value of Judaism.

Expelled from Germany in 1937, Prinz arrived in the United States, the land where democracy had supposedly triumphed over bigotry and hatred. Here, he witnessed racism against African Americans and realized the American ideal was not a reality.

As rabbi of Temple B'nai Abraham in Newark, NJ and later as the President of the American Jewish Congress, Prinz became a leader of the civil rights movement. Prinz worked to organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, declaring "bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence." Moments later, Martin Luther King, Jr. would deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Prinz continued to speak out for justice, taking sometimes unpopular positions on peace in Israel, women's rights and the Vietnam War. "I detest uniformity of thought," he wrote, "I love a controversial discussion."

Prinz: The Courage to Speak will be released in 2013, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington--a pivotal event for Prinz and for our country. The documentary will be broadcast with PBS affiliates in New York (WNET/13) and New Jersey (WLIW/21).

We've raised $20,000 on Kickstarter to pay for the permissions and rights for archival footage. Thank you to our backers! 

We have many more costs to cover, such as editing and post-production. Please support the project and spread the word!

CONTRIBUTIONS ARE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE THROUGH OUR FISCAL SPONSOR, THE INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY ASSOCIATION!

Echoes of History

As rabbi of Temple B'nai Abraham in Newark, Prinz expanded his community's worldview, inviting Martin Luther King, Jr. and other influential leaders to speak. In his final talk in Newark before the congregation's move to the suburbs, Prinz said,"Great crowds assembled here, Christian and Jew, black and white, many of whom had never seen the inside of a synagogue. We drew them together because we thought we ought to make a contribution to the entire community."

Today, the former home of Temple B'nai Abraham in Newark houses the Deliverance Evangelical Center (DEC). Its leaders, Apostle Ralph Shammah Nichol and Pastor Rosalind Nichol, joined with B'nai Abraham's current rabbi, Rabbi Clifford Kulwin, to obtain official landmark status for the building. Celebrating this achievement in a speech before the two congregations, Newark mayor Cory Booker said, "This is the time we need to hear the echoes of history, to hear the dreams of Rabbi Prinz and Dr. King and what they call for us to be. We need them now more than ever before."

PLEASE HELP US HEAR THE ECHOES OF HISTORY.

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