‘Do not oppress the stranger’: 1,000-plus US rabbis sign letter backing immigrant rights

JTA — Over 1,100 Jewish clergy from across the United States have signed onto a letter affirming their support for immigrant rights and calling on leaders not to “wrong or oppress the stranger.”

The letter published by the Jewish refugee aid group HIAS comes as Jewish communities across the US are grappling with the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement policies.

“To be a Jew is to advocate for law to be just, compassionate, and fair, and cry out when power is wielded with cruelty,” the letter reads. “In every generation, the Jewish soul is marked by the memory of migration. In this moment, that memory calls us to courage: To reclaim and recenter our moral compass. … To declare to our leaders: Do not wrong or oppress the stranger.”

The letter follows one in January from Jewish organizations and synagogues in Minnesota opposing the “volatile” status of immigration enforcement operations during high-profile and often combative raids in the area, writing, “There are too many stories of lives upended by what the government itself refers to as the ICE surge.”

Two US citizens were killed by immigration agents in Minnesota in altercations earlier this year.

Citing biblical passages and calling on leaders not to “wrong or oppress the stranger,” the new letter was signed by Jewish clergy from 45 states and released Wednesday in advance of HIAS’s annual “Refugee Shabbat.” The group, which has historically worked with the government on refugee resettlement, has curtailed some of its operations because of the Trump administration’s efforts to end refugee admissions to the United States.

The letter’s signatories included Amy Eilberg, the first woman to be ordained by the Conservative movement; Irving Greenberg, a prominent Modern Orthodox rabbi, and David Wolpe, the rabbi emeritus of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. It also includes a host of rabbis working inside and beyond traditional congregations across the country.

“Jewish text and tradition could not be clearer about our obligation to welcome the sojourner. In the US today, that should look like a just immigration system that treats individuals with dignity and care,” said Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the CEO of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, in a statement.

“As this government tramples on immigrants’ rights, it is inspiring to see rabbis and cantors courageously using their moral voices to stand up for what’s right,” she added.

Fueled by an awareness of their roots as perpetual refugees and recent immigrants, and by Jewish scripture, some American Jews have long been at the forefront of immigration advocacy in the United States and tend not to back draconian immigration policies, even from candidates they may otherwise support.