Jewish Clergy Speak Out on the Immoral Use of the Law

The following letter was signed by 565 Jewish clergy members in the United States. See the names of all signatories.

Law should be a tool of justice, not a cudgel of cruelty. As Jewish religious leaders, we are deeply troubled when governments deploy law and bureaucracy to cause harm under the pretext of enhancing legal order. Our history and values call upon us to speak out — for the protection of our neighbors and ourselves, and for the moral and existential health of our society.

This administration has demonstrated a pattern of exploiting and expanding interpretation of existing laws to stoke fear among immigrant communities. The great medieval Jewish thinker Nachmanides reminds us of the potential for law to lack morality when he named a person’s ability to act unethically within legal constraints “naval birshut hatorah — a scoundrel with the permission of torah/law,” one who observes the letter of the law while obviously violating its spirit. Law can not only permit immorality but can be a source thereof. Much of the Holocaust was made possible through a series of legal acts that lost any grounding in a foundation of human dignity. We do not invoke that history lightly in this context, nor are we declaring that Holocaust-like events are the inevitable end of what we are witnessing today. But we know that the Holocaust did not happen overnight — it took place after years of manipulation, injustice and discrimination. And it was not just the slow erosion of norms and laws that made it possible, but their intentional manipulation.

We see this cruel impulse being repeated in the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport hundreds of people without due process. It is evident in the resurrection and alarming expansion of a 1940 registration policy for immigrants entering the country without a visa. It is the same motive used in the Secretary of State’s expansive revocation of student visas with the authority of an obscure provision in the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act.

This administration’s actions weaponize statutes to instill terror and distrust across immigrant communities and all populations throughout the United States. Failing to take one’s documentation to the grocery store could become a crime. Writing an op-ed challenging U.S. policy or the administration’s views could result in deportation. Now even law firms are being penalized for working on causes that do not align with the White House — limiting individuals’ ability to secure proper legal representation. These concerns are not theoretical given the audacity with which this administration is already targeting immigrants.

The Constitution calls upon the president to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” This duty requires more than a technical legalism that maximizes executive power. It requires a commitment to the dignity afforded by our fundamental rights as people — citizen and non-citizen alike. It is this overarching value that gives our system legitimacy. When law becomes a source of abuse rather than of justice, it ceases to fulfill its intended purpose. We condemn the systematic undermining of the rights and security of immigrants. As Jews and as Americans, we refuse to remain silent at the co-opting of our nation’s statutes and express alarm about the path down which it leads. We demand that the administration abandon its manipulative interpretation of law and restore a commitment to the inalienable rights that are the source of our country’s greatness.

Not  on this letter? If you want to make sure you’re included in future letters, please join the HIAS Clergy Council. See the list of signatories here.