The American Jewish community has long affirmed its commitment to standing up for the rights and dignity of those seeking safety in our country. In response to the Trump administration’s draconian policy changes related to immigration, more than 600 Jewish clergy from across the country have signed a letter expressing their concern over our country’s horrific treatment of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Jewish clergy can add their name to the list by using the form below. Here is the full text of the letter.
As 627 undersigned American Jewish clergy, we strongly condemn the multiple policies announced at the outset of the Trump administration that explicitly target immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. These executive actions will not only fail to bring order and security to the country, but they will endanger individuals, separate families and destabilize communities and industries.
These policies will not solve problems. Instead, many are intended to overwhelm and instill terror in communities around the country. The chaos and cruelty unleashed is by design. Vast and varied harm will be inflicted before challenges to the policies can be adjudicated. When a government loses the thread of the ideals that anchor it, its law and its institutions can be weaponized as the source of abuse, not justice.
To reclaim the integrity of our institutions and our national identity, we center our moral compass as Jews and as Americans on our most fundamental values. The United States began with a declaration of unalienable rights endowed by a Creator. It is no exaggeration to say that Jewish tradition is teeming with the experience of forced displacement and the imperative established from that memory. From Abraham and Sarah’s life of migration to the Israelites wandering for 40 years in pursuit of a home under the constant threat of attack — the stories we tell ourselves about our identity focus on that memory. To reduce the centrality of the refugee and immigration experience in Jewish tradition to a singular verse, story, or commandment would be to ignore their ubiquity.
Click here to see the full list of signatories.
It is no exaggeration to say that Jewish tradition is teeming with the experience of forced displacement and the imperative established from that memory.
For these reasons, we reject all policies and actions that disregard human dignity, fail to provide due process and ignore our obligations under domestic and international law including:
- The indefinite suspension of refugee admissions through the U.S. refugee resettlement program.
- The elimination of the right to seek asylum through numerous actions including:
- The immediate termination of the CBP One app which allowed people to approach ports in an orderly fashion to seek asylum;
- Declaring an “invasion” to close the border for “national security and public health reasons;”
- Restarting the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a disastrous policy from the first Trump administration that forced thousands of asylum seekers to wait in dangerous conditions in Mexico while their immigration cases were adjudicated in the U.S.
- The declaration of a national emergency that empowers the president to deploy the armed forces to the southern border. The militarization of immigration enforcement sets a dangerous, antidemocratic and ahistoric precedent that is extreme, ineffective, and costly.
- Preparations for mass deportations that will target and disrupt vulnerable immigrant communities, many of whom contribute to and enrich the economic and social well-being of our country.
- The denial of birthright citizenship to individuals born in the U.S. to parents without permanent lawful status in violation of the 14th amendment of the Constitution.
We oppose the Trump administration’s replacement of our fundamental anchoring values with an unholy and xenophobic hyper-nationalism. We ground ourselves instead in the self-evident truths that center human dignity. We demand that our leaders do the same. And we will work tirelessly until our government’s laws and institutions embrace and reflect the values on which they were founded.
Click here to view the full list of signatories.
Jewish clergy can sign the letter using the form below
