For love of strangers: Behind the Jewish legacy of welcoming refugees
| Boulder, Colo.; Sacramento, Calif.; and Wellesley, Mass.
When thousands of Afghan immigrants were resettled in California鈥檚 Sacramento County听over听the past decade, volunteers from Congregation B鈥檔ai Israel were among those听in the county providing aid, helping parents find apartments and jobs, and offering assistance ranging from literacy lessons to backpacks and school supplies.听
鈥淲e have Holocaust survivors in our congregation,听and so many of us are just a generation or two removed from relatives who went through that experience or were forced to leave their country,鈥澨齭ays听Maryann听Rabovsky, who has served as chairwoman of the synagogue鈥檚 immigration and refugee assistance committee since it was formed three years ago. 鈥淭hey came here as refugees, and so we understand how important it is to help others who are having to leave everything they know behind.鈥�
That calling to help the 鈥渙ther鈥� 鈥� to welcome strangers, to aid immigrants and refugees 鈥� is one with deep roots in Judaism,听as well as other faiths,听and many Jews say they feel both a deep moral obligation as well an ethical imperative from their own history.听
Why We Wrote This
For many, the question of whether to accept refugees into the United States comes down to politics. For many Jews 鈥� as well as Muslims and 海角大神s 鈥� it is 鈥渁 matter of moral commitment.鈥�
And it鈥檚 a听message that gained new prominence this weekend when听the听idea of love for strangers and a faith-based imperative to help was thrust into juxtaposition with extreme hate, in the form of the shooter at a Pittsburgh synagogue, who, in online posts, tried to justify his actions by demonizing听Jewish groups helping refugees.
鈥淭he radical message of the Bible is that we should let our suffering teach us love,鈥� says Rabbi Shai Held, president听and dean听of Hadar, an egalitarian center for advanced Jewish learning in New York. 鈥淎nother way of coming at this is that there are three love commandments in the Bible: love of God, love of the neighbor, and love of the stranger 鈥� in the modern translation that essentially means immigrant.鈥�
An ancient text听cannot be used to settle the details of contemporary policy questions, Rabbi Held adds, 鈥渂ut it can and should help us establish an ethos, and the ethos can and should be one of welcome. The demonization of people seeking refuge is, religiously speaking, an abomination.鈥澨�
For some Americans less familiar with refugee issues, Saturday鈥檚 shooting in Pittsburgh may have been the first time they鈥檇 heard of HIAS, a global Jewish nonprofit that is one of nine resettlement agencies that partner with the US government to assist refugees.听Founded in 1881 to help Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia, HIAS largely aided Jewish refugees fleeing persecution听through the 20th century. More recently听the group has听expanded its work to assist non-Jewish refugees, and to work to help refugees around the world, wherever they are.
When Robert Bowers opened fire in the Tree of Life synagogue Saturday, killing听11听people听and wounding听six, he was apparently driven by anti-Semitism, but had also expressed rage online specifically against HIAS,听spouting conspiracy theories that the organization 鈥渓ike[d] to bring in hostile invaders to dwell among us.鈥�
That听rage听has been devastating to those doing the work.
鈥淚t鈥檚 both shocking and confounding, because it鈥檚 just such a twisting of the narrative we know to be true, which is that this is our obligation, and really everybody鈥檚 obligation,鈥� says Rabbi Rachel Grant Meyer, director of education for community engagement at HIAS. 鈥淲e鈥檙e in a time of incredible polarization in this country, where there has been a real uptick in hate speech, and that hate has been allowed to foment. This is a really tragic result of the moment that we鈥檙e in, but it also points to a patent misunderstanding of what our moral and ethical and religious obligations really are.鈥�
Those obligations have deep roots not just in Judaism, but in all three of the Abrahamic traditions, says听Mehnaz听Afridi, director of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College in New York听(and who happens to be, as she notes, a Muslim woman heading a Holocaust center at a Catholic college).听
鈥淔or all three traditions, the stranger, the refugee, the wayfarer 鈥� they鈥檙e part of all the sacred scripture,鈥� says Professor Afridi, citing numerous听specific instances in the Torah, the New Testament, and the Quran听where that obligation is spelled out.听鈥淲e鈥檝e all been strangers in lands, and I think that faith groups have always tried to help immigrants.鈥澨齌here鈥檚 a Syrian student on campus,听Afridi notes, who has been helped by Muslims, Jews, and Catholics in his journey.听
Of course, not everyone interprets those traditions that way, and all three faiths also have darker, less loving histories among some sects. 鈥淎ll faiths share the following: If you read your tradition in the most narrow way, faith can actually encourage narrow-mindedness and bigotry and exclusionary rhetoric and behavior,鈥� says Rabbi Sid Schwarz, author of 鈥淛udaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World.鈥� It鈥檚 a reason, he adds, why 鈥渁n open heart鈥� is called for in reading and understanding those traditions.
Open hearts were in abundance in the wake of Saturday鈥檚 shooting. There was an outpouring of support for the Tree of Life Synagogue from Muslims, 海角大神s, and other faith communities around the country.
'A moral commitment'
In Jewish teachings, that听idea of听welcoming the stranger is a core tenet, harkening back to the days when Jews were exiles in Egypt. 鈥淵ou reach out to the听other, because听you were the other in Egypt. It鈥檚 a constant refrain,鈥� says Rabbi听Shoshanah听Conover听at Chicago鈥檚 Temple Sholom. The Torah readings last weekend 鈥� the day of the Pittsburgh shooting 鈥� were about Abraham and Sarah welcoming strangers into their tent, who turn out to be messengers from God, notes Rabbi Conover. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 where we get this value of welcoming guests,鈥� she says.听鈥淥nce we get to Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy, we have the mention of welcoming the stranger, loving the stranger, all of these commandments, 36 times.鈥� 听
For many American Jews, they only have to look a generation or two back to find instances when they, or people they know, were fleeing persecution.听Held notes that his father was born in Poland and his mother in Lithuania, and that 鈥渢he world into which they were born was obliterated.鈥澨鼴ut more recently, other听ethnic听groups听around the world have emerged as the听most听vulnerable, pushing more Jews to look outside of their community as they seek to help, says Rabbi Schwarz.
鈥淚f we take our own experience and have the ethos to care for the stranger stop at the borders of our own community and tribe, then we鈥檝e learned nothing from history,鈥� says Schwarz. HIAS鈥檚 work, he says, epitomizes that drive to practice what teachings demand. 鈥淗IAS as an organization has pivoted from an organization that primarily was committed to helping Jewish refugees to, today, an organization that helps refugees because we鈥檙e Jews.鈥澨�
And even while Jewish communities have specific history, both recent and ancient, that gives added resonance, and empathy, to听the idea of helping听refugees 鈥� many Jewish scholars emphasize that the moral imperative would exist regardless.听
鈥淓very year Jews try to internalize the idea that we ourselves were slaves in Egypt and were听liberated,鈥μ齛nd we鈥檙e asked to make the leap to understand how others who were strangers or immigrants might feel,鈥� says Held. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why you have such a fiercely impassioned response from a large swath of the Jewish community鈥� not just to the refugee crisis but to the immigration issues that came to a head this summer. 鈥淭he historical experience of the Jews amplifies for us what is always in place as a moral commitment.鈥澨�
It鈥檚 that commitment 鈥� and the news about the Syrian refugee crisis 鈥� that led Conover, at the Chicago temple, to help spearhead听a recent听effort to sponsor听a refugee family. 鈥淚t hit that听boiling point where it felt like if we don鈥檛 do something now, we鈥檙e not living up to our ethical Jewish imperative,鈥� she says.听
Her temple and several others in Chicago went through training with HIAS and, in the end,听Temple Sholom听sponsored a Rohingya family听through听RefugeeOne, another refugee resettlement agency. The political turmoil around refugees that has arisen during the Trump presidency delayed the temple鈥檚 efforts to help, and prompted congregants to shift some of their focus to advocacy, Conover says. And the experience of actually working with a refugee family 鈥撎齱hich arrived with a 2-year-old son听and a teenage daughter, and听that has听another听child who wasn鈥檛 able to travel with them 鈥� lent a personal immediacy to what can seem an abstract debate.
鈥淲orking with them very directly makes it very, very personal when there is dehumanizing rhetoric听about who听comes to this country,鈥� says Conover.听
鈥業f you save one life, you save a world鈥�
In听Wellesley, Mass., a leafy suburb 30 minutes听west听of Boston,听Michael Gilman and Debbie听Gotbetter听get similarly emotional when they talk about the two Syrian families their temple, Beth Elohim, has helped to support, and the six other families in the area they鈥檝e worked with.
They were also moved to help by news of the growing Syrian refugee crisis in 2015, and both serve on the associated with their congregation,听which works with HIAS and Jewish Family Services.
鈥淚n the Jewish tradition and the Muslim tradition,听you know the saying is听鈥業f you save one life, you save a world,鈥� 鈥� says Mr. Gilman, speaking in a quiet corner of Beth Elohim as children run about on the floor below.听鈥淎nd you know,听from that perspective we鈥檝e听saved many worlds.鈥�
Ms.听Gotbetter, Gilman, and other volunteers worked to set up apartments for the families ahead of time, stocking them with furniture and familiar foods. And the nervousness they felt before the families鈥� arrival quickly melted away, they said.听Since听the families arrived about two years ago the volunteers have shared poignant moments with them, and听Gotbetter听even served as a doula for a birth.
鈥淚 have more photos of them than I do of my own family,鈥� she says.
Gotbetter听remembers asking one father what surprised him the most coming here. 鈥淎nd he pointed at me and basically said,听鈥榊ou. Your community,鈥� 鈥� she says.听鈥淭hey were surprised that we were all Jewish and have told their families,听and I think they were surprised too,听and it's been really powerful for all of us.鈥�
Schwarz听notes that the process of helping a refugee family was also a powerful experience for his congregation in Bethesda, Md. In their case, it was an Afghan family 鈥� a husband, wife, and four children 鈥� that they helped, and it was in conjunction with a Presbyterian听refugee resettlement organization. 鈥淥ur entire congregation has embraced them,鈥� Schwarz says. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got听a 海角大神 organization helping a Muslim family from Afghanistan, and we鈥檙e Jews who are doing it. And all those pieces are interchangeable.听You go to听another听community where听HIAS听is the agency,听and a 海角大神 church听is听taking on the family听that鈥檚听coming in from Syria. That鈥檚 the epitome of what it means for people of faith to join hands together with people who are suffering and who are the most vulnerable in the world today.鈥澨�
