Written testimony submitted for hearing on the Syrian Refugee Crisis and its Impact on the Security of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to submit testimony on behalf of T’ruah: the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights concerning the response of the United States to the refugee crisis and the effect of recent terror attacks in Beirut and Paris on these important decisions. It is worrisome that more than two dozen state governors have been ignoring our country’s obligations to refugees under the UN Refugee Convention, which we signed and ratified in 1967. We are grateful for the Subcommittee’s timely review of our responsibilities today.
T’ruah: the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights is an organization of 1,800 rabbis from all streams of Judaism that acts on the Jewish imperative to respect and protect the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and our Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we advocate for human rights in Israel and North America. We are one of many organizations working with Shoulder to Shoulder: Standing with American Muslims, Upholding American Values, and our concern for the welfare of Muslims in the United States comes from our commitment to human rights for all and our own Jewish historical experience as a minority often in need of protection.
Our historical experience as Jews in the United States teaches us the consequences of letting our fears dictate our policies towards those seeking refuge. 75 years ago, as Jewish refugees from the Nazis in Europe desperately sought a safe haven, elected officials in the United States spoke about the threat of Nazi infiltrators arriving on refugee boats, and spoke out against letting in so many Jews. Similar rhetoric about Muslim refugees is being used today, and similar fears are being used as excuses for refusing refuge to Syrians. Today, the processes our country has in place for screening refugees are incredibly thorough, and at least half of the refugees are children, who do not pose a threat. Americans made the mistake less than a century ago of turning away refugee Jewish children and their parents, many of whom went to their deaths. Today, we see in the Syrian refugees the same need that we saw two generations ago among European Jewish refugees, and today we have the strength, the resources, and the understanding to provide them with the shelter and aid they so desperately need.
At the beginning of Genesis, we read: “God created the human in his own image.” (Genesis 1:27) Our primary understanding of who we are comes from this phrase, teaching us that every human being – no matter their religion or nationality – is created in God’s image, b’tzelem elohim. Therefore, to refuse hospitality and aid to millions of human beings in a dire situation is akin to degrading the divine.
If we take our belief in God seriously as people of faith, then we cannot be silent when millions of fellow human beings are being prevented from seeking refuge in other countries, and who are now being treated as undesirable in our country, primarily because of their religion. The Muslim faith of refugees does not make them inherently dangerous, as some voices have said. Acts of terror being committed today by extremists have had devastating impacts on Muslim communities as well as others. The fear is understandable, but our fears are shared by the majority of refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, who are fleeing precisely the same violence. Refusing to help victims of our shared enemy is immoral and cowardly.
Jewish tradition emphasizes the need for a shared sense of human responsibility. In a collection of Biblical interpretations called Pirke DeRabbi Eliezer, we are told that god gathered the dust – red, black, white, and yellow – to create the first person from the four corners of the world. Why? So that if a person traveled from east to west or from west to east, and the time came for that person to die, the earth would not be able to say that the dust of that person’s body did not belong there, or should return to the place from which the person had been created. We learn that the basic elements of creation in each of our bodies are the same everywhere, and that each person’s body will return to the dust, as is says in Genesis 3:19, “For you are dust, and you shall return to dust.”
We believe that the moral voice of rabbis is critical in ending hateful and false anti-Muslim rhetoric, and we believe that the time to act and help these refugees is now. Mr. Chairman, Members of the Subcommittee, T’ruah: the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights believes strongly that the United States should do everything it can to be a place of refuge and welcome for those in dire need. We have a moral obligation to uphold the dignity and the safety of those in desperate circumstances. To that end, we strongly support your leadership in sponsoring legislation that would bring Syrian refugees to the United States and ensure their safety once here. We implore you to publicly recommit to our obligations under the Refugee Convention and come to the aid of our allies in Europe and the Middle East today by acting immediately to bring refugees to the United States. Your hearing today is a very important effort in doing that, and we thank you for the opportunity to contribute to it.