On January 27th 1945 the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated; years later that date was selected as the internationally recognized Holocaust Memorial Day. It serves as an annual warning of what can happen when a single group is persecuted because of their race, religion, sexuality or nationality. It is a clarion call against the persecution of people because they are different.
For the
Jewish community the memory of the Holocaust remains raw and painful. But it is
also a call to action and our rallying cry ever since has been “Never Again”.
The introduction of a travel ban, excluding people on the basis of religion or
country of origin, stands in stark contrast to our commitment to ensure that
history never repeats itself. And for this Executive Order against Muslims to
be introduced on January 27th is a call to action we cannot ignore.
We Jews
have unfortunately seen first hand where this kind of behavior can lead and we
know that never again was not only about the persecution of Jews, it was about
the persecution of all people,
Just over
70 years ago if countries hadn’t closed their borders to our Jewish brothers
and sisters, how many people might have been saved? Less than a century ago we
were subject to a travel ban and borders were closed to Jewish refugees. Many
of us here today are the lucky ones whose ancestors found a way out while other
family members were unable to escape the Nazi persecution and death.
Today as
our Muslim brothers and sisters are on the receiving end of bans and exclusions,
we must ask ourselves how will we respond?
In our
Torah we often quote the verse from the Holiness Code in Vayikra (Leviticus): “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (19:18). It is easy to focus on loving our neighbor
because our neighbor is likely to be someone who is similar to us. We rarely
focus on the fact that just a few verses later we read: “When a stranger
resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who
resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as
yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt" (19:33-34).
We are
not just obliged to love our neighbor, but we are also called on to love the
stranger, the person who is different from us. Today we are called to make good
on this commandment. We have an imperative to demonstrate this love for the
stranger as we challenge and oppose this harmful legislation.
On a
personal level I looked at my Green Card and thought about what it represented.
When I received it I was told it was a guarantee of my permanent residency of
these United States, and that apart from voting and jury duty I would be
treated as a citizen in all other regards. It is the card that allows my family
to live together. I cannot even begin to imagine how those Green Card holders
from the seven excluded countries must have felt over the weekend when they
discovered that they might be unable to return to the place they call home, and
that they might be forbidden from reuniting with their partners and children.
Legislation
that excludes a group based on their religion is clearly in contravention of
our obligation to love the stranger. We were slaves in the Land of Egypt and we
know what it is like to suffer oppression and persecution. And when we see it happening
to another group we cannot be silent. As individuals and as a community we must
choose how we want to respond.
I am
proud of the leadership that the Reform movement has shown in tackling this
issue head on. You can visit the Religious Action Center’s website to send a
letter to President Trump opposing this Executive Order and the travel ban.
I am grateful to the many Rabbis and religious leaders who were at the
forefront of the protests at the airports this past weekend. And I am heartened
to see the numbers of people across this great nation who have refused to
accept this new policy.
Nice post. Speaking about technologies these days. I know that virtual data room comparison is a good substitute for old-fashioned way of storing the information.
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