Maurice Davis quotes

Maurice Davis was an American rabbi and civil rights activist known for his efforts in combating antisemitism and promoting interfaith dialogue. His leadership inspired many in both religious and social justice communities. He dedicated his life to fighting prejudice and building bridges between diverse groups. Here are 8 of his quotes:

I am here to protest against child molesters. For as surely as there are those who lure children with lollypops in order to rape their bodies, so, too, do these lure children with candy-coated lies in order to rape their minds.

Maurice Davis

Once we stopped at the camp site several things began to occur to me. The first was that I had neither eaten nor drunk anything for more than twelve hours. I had not even sat down once in those twelve hours. My left foot had blistered painfully. And I had experienced a religious exaltation which I had never witnessed before.

Maurice Davis

I keep thinking what happens when the power of love is twisted into the love of power. ... When he bought our temple we had an eternal light going. Jim asked us to leave it. He wanted to keep it burning as a sign of our friendship and what we stood for. All last night I kept wondering, where did it go out?

Maurice Davis

The last time I ever witnessed a movement that had these qualifications: (1) a totally monolithic movement with a single point of view and a single authoritarian head; (2) replete with fanatical followers who are prepared and programmed to do anything their master says; (3) supplied by absolutely unlimited funds; (4) with a hatred of everyone on the outside; (5) with suspicion of parents, against their parents - the last movement that had those qualifications was the Nazi youth movement, and I'll tell you, I'm scared.

Maurice Davis

Ladies and gentlemen, every path leads somewhere. That is what a path is all about. The path of segregation leads to lynching every time. The path of antisemitism leads to Auschwitz every time. The path of the cults leads to Jonestown - and we ignore it at our peril.

Maurice Davis

A seven year old boy joined my line. I asked him, "What are you doing?" He said, "Marching." I asked him, "Why are you marching?" He looked up at me and said, "For my freedom."

Maurice Davis

I am a Jew, and I am a Rabbi, and I cherish - as do my people - the grandeur of the First Amendment. That amendment prevents, and properly so, the government from investigating the beliefs of any group that calls itself religious; but it does not prevent the government from investigating the activities of any group, whatever its name might be. No man and no group in this country is above the law. Indeed, for 1000 years and more my people have lived with the Hebrew phrase, "נא דמלכותא דינא ." [Dina d'malkhuta dina] - "The law of the land is the law." Unless that law is upheld and enforced, we all of us are victims and we Jews know this very well.

Maurice Davis