Perhaps you’ve had the kind of experience I’m about to describe.
When my sons were teenagers they were getting on my nerves the same day that a lot of other frustrating things were happening.
I said things I shouldn’t have said in a tone I shouldn’t have used.
In a moment of clarity, I asked myself - hey, who is this guy? Who are you? Who have you become?
There are moments when we ask ourselves who we are and who we have become.
Sometimes it’s true of us as individuals. Sometimes it’s true of us as a community. Sometimes it’s true of us as a nation.
We have read, seen and heard about the policy which intensified this past week to use separation of parents and children as a deterrent to people seeking asylum in the United States. We’ve read descriptions. We’ve seen and heard the anguish of children who were separated from their parents.
Following an executive order of several days ago, it seems that separation will no longer used as a deterrent; instead, parents and children will be detained together.
That raises legal problems in itself and it doesn’t solve the problem of what to do with the over 2000 children who have already recently been separated from their parents.
Protests have come from across the political spectrum and across the religious spectrum.
Regarding the issue of immigration, there have always been efforts to come up with a fair response to those seeking to immigrate to the United States. On both sides of the aisle.
Here’s a quotation from a former US president who was speaking of immigration legislation about to be introduced:
“We have consistently supported a legalization program which is both generous to the alien and fair to the countless thousands of people throughout the world who seek legally to come to America. The legalization provisions in this act will go far to improve the lives of a class of individuals who now must hide in the shadows, without access to many of the benefits of a free and open society. Very soon many of these men and women will be able to step into the sunlight and, ultimately, if they choose, they may become Americans.”
Who said that? Ronald Reagan.
Here’s something else he said:
“Some months before I declared (my intention to run), I asked for a meeting and crossed the border to meet with the president of Mexico. I did not go with a plan. I went, as I said in my announcement address, to ask him his ideas - how we could make the border something other than a locale for a nine-foot fence?”
I take notice when Paul Krugman and Bret Stephens are on the same side of an issue.
Paul Krugman wrote a few days ago of the dangers of vilifying a whole group of people, likening the current discrimination to classic anti-Semitism.
And Bret Stephens recently wrote that we need more immigrants, not fewer. The United States has plenty of space, plenty of jobs and an aging population. He mentioned that 2 countries in the world who have greater percentages of immigrants than we do - Australia and Israel - currently have very robust economies.
Our nation needs to deal now with thousands of children, some who came by themselves, some who recently were separated from their parents - most of whom cannot easily be reunited with their parents.
Children whose parents were told “we’re taking your child to give him a bath” and then were taken away indefinitely.
As Americans we must ask ourselves, who are we and who have we become?
And we need to ask the same questions of ourselves as Jews. Who are we and who have we become? Do we need a reminder that we are immigrants to this country? We came mostly from you-know-what cities in you-know-what countries. My grandparents certainly did - all four of them. Are we going to pretend that we came over on the Mayflower? And even if we did come over on the Mayflower, by what right, barring extreme circumstances, do we refuse the opportunity of coming to this country to others?
And how do we ignore the numerous passages in the Torah that command us to be kind and just to the stranger since we ourselves were once strangers?
We’ve been reading in the Torah about the Israelites’ wandering in the wilderness. They complain, they act short-sightedly.
God is frustrated with our ancestors. God says to them, in effect, children of Israel - you endured slavery, you took a bunch of other unfortunate people along with you when you left, you bear the legacy of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah - and now look at you. You are fearful, complaining, lacking in faith, lacking in stature.
In other words - who are you and who have you become?
God determined that our ancestors were so diminished by fear that they were not able to enter the promised land.
I hope that isn’t true of us today. I hope that we don’t have to wait for the next generation to exercise just and righteous leadership. Are we so paralyzed by our fears that we cannot see and do what is just?
Are we so mired in myopia that we cannot appreciate the potential of our great land to continue to welcome others and the potential that others have to contribute to their new home?
I hope not. I hope that we can remember who we are as Jews. A nation of people who come from somewhere else to bring blessing to new lands, a nation of people who pursue justice for themselves and for others.
Practically there are things we can do as concerned American Jews. We can advocate for just immigration policies. We can volunteer locally to help help recently arrived refugees and to advocate for asylum seekers.
Who are we? We are the children of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah who opened up their tents offering hospitality and opportunity. Following their examples, we have been striving for millennia to be a source of blessing to כל משפחות האדמה kol mish’p’hot ha’adama - all the families of the earth.
And now a final question, perhaps the most important of all.
Who are we becoming? Hopefully, people who understand, more and more, that human beings rise together or fall together. Hopefully people who can lift ourselves up and also help others to rise.
May our Creator inspire us to learn from our past how to impact a better future, reminding us each day who we are and who we should become.
Originally shared with the Temple Israel of Great Neck community on July 23, 2018
When my sons were teenagers they were getting on my nerves the same day that a lot of other frustrating things were happening.
Jewish children rescued from Vienna in 1939
I said things I shouldn’t have said in a tone I shouldn’t have used.
In a moment of clarity, I asked myself - hey, who is this guy? Who are you? Who have you become?
There are moments when we ask ourselves who we are and who we have become.
Sometimes it’s true of us as individuals. Sometimes it’s true of us as a community. Sometimes it’s true of us as a nation.
We have read, seen and heard about the policy which intensified this past week to use separation of parents and children as a deterrent to people seeking asylum in the United States. We’ve read descriptions. We’ve seen and heard the anguish of children who were separated from their parents.
Following an executive order of several days ago, it seems that separation will no longer used as a deterrent; instead, parents and children will be detained together.
That raises legal problems in itself and it doesn’t solve the problem of what to do with the over 2000 children who have already recently been separated from their parents.
Protests have come from across the political spectrum and across the religious spectrum.
Regarding the issue of immigration, there have always been efforts to come up with a fair response to those seeking to immigrate to the United States. On both sides of the aisle.
Here’s a quotation from a former US president who was speaking of immigration legislation about to be introduced:
“We have consistently supported a legalization program which is both generous to the alien and fair to the countless thousands of people throughout the world who seek legally to come to America. The legalization provisions in this act will go far to improve the lives of a class of individuals who now must hide in the shadows, without access to many of the benefits of a free and open society. Very soon many of these men and women will be able to step into the sunlight and, ultimately, if they choose, they may become Americans.”
Who said that? Ronald Reagan.
Here’s something else he said:
“Some months before I declared (my intention to run), I asked for a meeting and crossed the border to meet with the president of Mexico. I did not go with a plan. I went, as I said in my announcement address, to ask him his ideas - how we could make the border something other than a locale for a nine-foot fence?”
I take notice when Paul Krugman and Bret Stephens are on the same side of an issue.
Paul Krugman wrote a few days ago of the dangers of vilifying a whole group of people, likening the current discrimination to classic anti-Semitism.
And Bret Stephens recently wrote that we need more immigrants, not fewer. The United States has plenty of space, plenty of jobs and an aging population. He mentioned that 2 countries in the world who have greater percentages of immigrants than we do - Australia and Israel - currently have very robust economies.
Our nation needs to deal now with thousands of children, some who came by themselves, some who recently were separated from their parents - most of whom cannot easily be reunited with their parents.
Children whose parents were told “we’re taking your child to give him a bath” and then were taken away indefinitely.
As Americans we must ask ourselves, who are we and who have we become?
And we need to ask the same questions of ourselves as Jews. Who are we and who have we become? Do we need a reminder that we are immigrants to this country? We came mostly from you-know-what cities in you-know-what countries. My grandparents certainly did - all four of them. Are we going to pretend that we came over on the Mayflower? And even if we did come over on the Mayflower, by what right, barring extreme circumstances, do we refuse the opportunity of coming to this country to others?
And how do we ignore the numerous passages in the Torah that command us to be kind and just to the stranger since we ourselves were once strangers?
We’ve been reading in the Torah about the Israelites’ wandering in the wilderness. They complain, they act short-sightedly.
God is frustrated with our ancestors. God says to them, in effect, children of Israel - you endured slavery, you took a bunch of other unfortunate people along with you when you left, you bear the legacy of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah - and now look at you. You are fearful, complaining, lacking in faith, lacking in stature.
In other words - who are you and who have you become?
God determined that our ancestors were so diminished by fear that they were not able to enter the promised land.
I hope that isn’t true of us today. I hope that we don’t have to wait for the next generation to exercise just and righteous leadership. Are we so paralyzed by our fears that we cannot see and do what is just?
Are we so mired in myopia that we cannot appreciate the potential of our great land to continue to welcome others and the potential that others have to contribute to their new home?
I hope not. I hope that we can remember who we are as Jews. A nation of people who come from somewhere else to bring blessing to new lands, a nation of people who pursue justice for themselves and for others.
Practically there are things we can do as concerned American Jews. We can advocate for just immigration policies. We can volunteer locally to help help recently arrived refugees and to advocate for asylum seekers.
Who are we? We are the children of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah who opened up their tents offering hospitality and opportunity. Following their examples, we have been striving for millennia to be a source of blessing to כל משפחות האדמה kol mish’p’hot ha’adama - all the families of the earth.
And now a final question, perhaps the most important of all.
Who are we becoming? Hopefully, people who understand, more and more, that human beings rise together or fall together. Hopefully people who can lift ourselves up and also help others to rise.
May our Creator inspire us to learn from our past how to impact a better future, reminding us each day who we are and who we should become.
Originally shared with the Temple Israel of Great Neck community on July 23, 2018
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