Jewish Community Leaders Call for Action

Posted

The Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and the Board of Rabbis of Greater Rhode Island are horrified and outraged by a recent policy that compelled the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to separate parents from their children when they cross the United States border, many of whom are doing so legally, seeking refuge and asylum. Like many across our nation, we have been deeply disturbed and alarmed seeing the faces of screaming parents and crying children being ripped apart. We will not sit idly by. 

Although the administration is considering [at press time] an executive order to end the practice of family separation, it is unclear how such a change in policy will be implemented and whether separated families will be reunited.

As representatives of the nearly 20,000 Jewish community members in our state, we are emboldened to call out these despicable acts and demand change. We applaud Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation for disputing these policies. We join with millions across our nation to call on the President, the Attorney General and Congress to put an immediate end to this policy and to guarantee the humane treatment of all.   

A guiding origin story of the Jewish people is our migration from Egypt. This Exodus story seeps into our traditions, customs and values. In Deuteronomy it is written, “You shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”  We are taught to model our ethics and lives around this story, and that our compassion for others must be ever present. More so, our tradition commands us to “welcome the other,” and to empathize with “the widow, the stranger and the orphan” because we ourselves were strangers once too. The inhumane treatment of migrant children and parents is reprehensible compared to the values we are taught to live by. 

But as the Jewish people, we don’t need to go back thousands of years to recount why this horror is so profound; we only need to look back 80 years. We remember a time, not so long ago, when Jewish parents were forced to watch their children taken away. These memories haunt us and deepen our determination that no family should ever endure this kind of separation again.

We call out in protection of human dignity and the sacredness of each person, to reverse this policy and ensure the swift reunification of these families. Ripping families apart is cruel and inhumane, a practice associated with authoritarian regimes, not democracies that respect human rights.

Ours is a nation of immigrants, and how we treat these individuals should reflect our values of respect and fair treatment for all human beings. We call on the Administration, Congress and our elected officials to put an immediate end to the policy of separating families and to guarantee humane and compassionate treatment of all.

 

Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser

Rabbi, Temple Sinai, Cranston,

 

Representative, The Board of Rabbis of Greater Rhode Island

 

 

Mitzi Berkelhammer

Chair, Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island