Zev Aelony

Zev Aelony was born on February 21, 1938, in Palo Alto, California, to Janet and David Aelony. His father, David Aelony, emigrated from Odessa in the Soviet Union to the United States in 1925, eventually earning his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at Stanford University, His roommate at a kibbutz was an Arab Muslim. From that time, he championed equality for all ethnic groups in the state of Israel. Aelony grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He studied Russian and played football at University High School, from which he graduated in 1956. Aelony attended the University of Chicago for two years and then lived at the Kibbutz Shoval in Israel for a year. Upon his return to the United States, Aelony spent the summer of 1959 at Koinonia, a Christian community in southwest Georgia. He continued his education at the University of Minnesota, where he graduated in 1961 with a major in political theory and a minor in anthropology. He met his wife, Karen Olson, at the university. They were married for 43 years, until Aelony's death in 2009. They had four sons together: Bjorn, Ephraim, Phil, and Jared. == Career ==

To support his family, Aelony and his wife owned a small business selling security products for commercial buildings. Aelony became an advocate for civil rights and social justice beginning in his teen years. From his earliest years he was an admirer of Mahatma Gandhi and non-violent resistance to injustice. At the University of Minnesota, he helped found Students for Integration, a group dedicated to gaining housing and employment for black and minority students. Aelony was arrested several times for testing the ban on segregated interstate travel in the Deep South as a Freedom Rider. He was famously arrested and served time on death row in Americus, Georgia, for attempting to register black voters. Aelony has been described as a soft-spoken and peaceful man who practiced nonviolence and continued to fight for justice throughout his lifetime. == Influences ==

Religion The Aelony family was Jewish, which contributed to Zev Aelony's belief in peace and nonviolence. At the time, Koinonia Farm gained notoriety as a target of racial bigotry, and was even bombed. Aelony spent the summer of 1959 in Koinonia working with and learning about the people there, who impressed him. In addition to his native English language, he spoke Hebrew, German, and Russian. His German skills were put to the test in 1963 when the European press, many of whom did not speak English, descended on the CORE workers. His explanation to the press in German of what they were trying to accomplish was published widely in Europe and contributed to the pressure on Washington to uphold the Supreme Court ruling against discrimination in public transportation in interstate commerce. Family Aelony's father, David, was an immigrant and was involved in the opposition to the rise of Nazism in Germany, where he had relatives. He spoke fluent English, German, Hebrew, Yiddish, and French, and also knew parts of other Slavic and Germanic languages, as well as Spanish and Italian. David Aelony began welcoming refugees into his home when he met them on the streets. One of the turning points in Zev Aelony's life occurred around the age of 18, when his family was invited to a Minneapolis picnic because of his father's work with the refugees. Jewish refugees from Europe and Japanese-Americans who had been in the internment camps out West attended the picnic. Aelony was shocked to meet kids who came out of those internment camps, as he believed things like that did not happen in the United States . Experiences Aelony was not completely naïve about segregation and first became involved in civil rights campaigns in high school. During this time in the mid-1950s, he participated in the distribution of NAACP postcards bearing the slogan "Completely Free by ’63," though to him this goal seemed too distant. The hatred Aelony witnessed towards the Koinonia community for practicing racial equality drove him towards participation in the Civil Rights Movement. In September 1959, he attended a ten-day CORE training seminar in Miami, Florida. The seminar focused on nonviolence training and was attended by many people involved in the Freedom Rides, including Patricia Stephens Due and her sister Priscilla Stevens. The seminar was held at the Sir John Motel, one of the few places in Miami that allowed blacks and whites to stay together. The nonviolence training consisted of techniques in organizing and training, and also emphasized the need to understand the people who were against integration. Aelony came to believe that it was important to understand why people do things rather than just dividing them into categories of good and bad. == Civil rights work ==

Students for Integration (SFI) Aelony worked with a group of students to help find housing for Persian students. While there, Aelony participated in a hunger strike with several others, and he was isolated for a period of time for writing "you’ll reap what you sow" on the back wall with a spoon. CORE Soul Force In the spring of 1963, Aelony became a part of the Journey of Reconciliation. five members of CORE and five members of SNCC responded to his wife's request that the journey be carried on. The group, an equal mix of black and white males, was arrested for "walking into the state of Alabama in a manner designed to incite a breach of the peace". Aelony was eventually released after the intervention of Minnesota's governor, who was attending the Governor's Conference in Miami, and he returned to Americus. The arrests in Americus continued to take place; hundreds of people who were a part of the voting rights drive were taken to a camp outside of town. This charge carried the death penalty under Georgia's 1871 Anti-Treason Act. Shortly afterward, he suffered a myocardial infarction and was hospitalized at Grady Hospital, by a local black physician who cared for the CORE workers. Thus, Aelony integrated the black ward at Grady Hospital. He was examined there by the famous academic cardiologist, Professor Willis Hurst, who felt his heart attack was related to his beating in Ocala, Florida. He was then advised to terminate his dangerous protest work in the deep South. == Later life and death ==

Aelony continued to be politically active Aelony died of metastatic colon cancer on November 1, 2009, at his home. He was 71 years old. == References ==