NEW YORK – After President Trump introduced a new travel ban that prohibits people from 19 countries from traveling to the United States, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights responded by condemning the ban, calling it discriminatory and anti-democratic.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, said:
“Trump’s new travel ban is racist and xenophobic, Islamophobic and anti-African, and designed to stoke fear and hatred. The suggestion that it will make Americans safer is absurd. This overreaching and legally questionable ban prevents all travel by people from 12 countries with partial restrictions for those from another seven, and it will apply to approximately 475 million people. People come to the U.S. from these countries for all kinds of reasons, including to visit family, to study at university, to work, to receive medical care, and to flee persecution and build a better life.
“Trump is trying to vilify people based on where they come from. This is straight out of the autocratic playbook. Our rabbis and cantors are ready to stand up to this abuse of power, just like we did in response to the Muslim Ban in 2017, side-by-side with immigrant and Muslim leaders.
“To make matters worse, Trump is claiming the ban is a response to Sunday’s attack in Boulder, using Jews’ real fears of antisemitism as an excuse for his anti-democratic, discriminatory policy. But Jews know this travel ban, rooted in the white supremacism that is at the core of much violent antisemitism, will not make us safer, and it will cause real harm to many.
“We urge Congress to use every lever at their disposal to push against this ban, and all of the ways Trump is enacting his mass deportation agenda, which has swept up untold numbers of people and families in its racist, costly wake. To that end, we urge Congress to pass the NO BAN Act, reintroduced this past February by Senator Chris Coons and Representative Judy Chu, which would limit the president’s ability to restrict entry to the U.S. by non-citizens.”
“The Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni 13:2) tells us that God created the first person out of dust from the four corners of the earth so that ‘if one comes from the east to the west and arrives at the end of his life as he neared departing from the world, the land will not say to him, “The dust of your body isn’t mine. Go back to where you were created.” Rather, every place a person goes, a part of them is from there and a part of them is returning there.’ Our tradition tells us that from the beginning God formed us with the right to travel and the very earth of our bones testifies to our shared belonging. We reject this bigoted policy and the absurd claim that this rejection of our values is in any way about Jewish safety.”
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About T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights brings the Torah’s ideals of human dignity, equality, and justice to life by empowering our network of over 2,300 rabbis and cantors to be moral voices and to lead Jewish communities in advancing democracy and human rights for all people in the United States, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.