10 July 25 • 2019
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merican Jews have a long and 
understandable tradition of 
advocacy for immigrants. That’
s 
due in part to the fact that most Jews 
were the children and grandchildren 
of immigrants as the community first 
began to assert itself into the political 
life of the country in the 
20th century. It’
s also 
because the plight of 
those who were denied 
entry to the United 
States and other poten-
tial sources of refuge for 
those Jews seeking to 
flee Nazi Germany and 
occupied Europe during 
the Holocaust is imprinted upon the 
political memory of most Jews. 
So, it’
s hardly surprising that much 
of the organized Jewish community has 
little sympathy for President Donald 
Trump’
s positions on illegal immigra-
tion. That includes distaste for his desire 
to build a wall on America’
s southern 
border, as well as contempt for contro-
versial policies that led to the separation 
of families of those who entered the 
country illegally. And it now extends to 
revulsion toward the deplorable condi-
tions at detention camps as the resources 
of the federal government have been 
overwhelmed by a surge of migrants and 
often dubious asylum claims by econom-
ic migrants in the last several months.
But there is a difference between sup-
porting more liberal immigration laws 
and empathy for those who came here 
illegally and the more radical stands on 
these issues that are increasingly become 
mainstream on the left.
The left-wing Jewish groups that 
are organizing the growing number of 
demonstrations against the work of the 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement 
(ICE) agency and essentially opposing 
any enforcement of laws against illegal 
immigration think they are representing 
the views of most Jews these days. And 
they might be right.
The Democratic presidential candi-
dates were nearly unanimous during 
their recent debates about supporting the 
decriminalization of illegal entry into the 
United States. They are similarly united 
behind measures like providing free gov-
ernment health care for illegals.
And while most mainstream Jewish 
groups have pushed back against anal-

ogies to the plight of illegal immigrants 
and asylum-seekers to the Holocaust, 
many are continuing to do just that. 
Indeed, the coalition of left-wing orga-
nizations organizing the protests against 
federal law enforcement aren’
t just 
applauding Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez’
s labeling of detention centers as 
“concentration camps,
” they’
ve named 
their group “Never Again Action.
”
The support they have garnered is 
indicative of two things: genuine horror 
about the conditions at federal facilities 
and partisanship.
Claims that all those who are flood-
ing across the border are in some ways 
analogous to Jews fleeing for their lives 
from a Nazi death sentence are as absurd 
as they are false. Still, the hardships 
faced by those in custody were bound 
to generate outrage from Jews, who are 
naturally sympathetic to downtrodden 
underdogs.
It’
s also true that many of those lead-
ing these protests are guilty of blatant 
hypocrisy.
It was, after all, only six months ago 
that the same people now denouncing 
the conditions at the border today were 
just as adamant in claiming that Trump’
s 
arguments about there being a crisis 
there were false. Whether you agree with 
the president about the need for a wall, 
in retrospect, the position taken by his 
critics, which generated a lengthy gov-
ernment shutdown, was disingenuous.
Their hypocrisy is also compounded 
by the fact that the same Democrats 
decrying Trump voiced no protests 
when families were separated, immi-
grants imprisoned and millions deported 
on President Barack Obama’
s watch.
To note this hypocrisy is not to gainsay 
the need for the government to improve 
conditions at the detention centers.
But in assessing this debate, we also 
have to acknowledge that Trump’
s critics 
and the Democratic candidates have 
departed from traditional Jewish posi-
tions on immigration. That means the 
notion that the community is obligated 
to follow along and echo some of these 
radical Democratic stands doesn’
t stand 
up to scrutiny.
The organized Jewish community has 
always supported more liberal immigra-
tion laws, family reunification, and an 
orderly and generous asylum process. 
But what leading Democrats are now 

proposing in terms of decriminaliza-
tion and entitlements for illegals goes 
beyond even the granting of amnesty 
for those who are already in the country 
without legal permission. Their stands 
are now indistinguishable from open 
borders. The idea that open borders, as 
opposed to compassionate treatment of 
immigrants, is somehow consonant with 
Jewish values or history is pure fiction.
The accusations that the crisis at the 
border is the result of Trump’
s moral 
failings are also bogus. Whatever you 
may think of the president, every mass 
movement across the border has been 
preceded by liberal promises that those 
who come here without following the 
rules don’
t have to worry about being 
held accountable for breaking the law. 
The only way to curtail this flood of 
migrants — and thereby relieve the 
crisis — is to make it clear that all those 
who try will be caught and deported. 
Democratic pledges of free health care, 
college tuition and driver’
s licenses are 
a neon welcome sign that led directly to 
the unfolding calamity at the border.
But there’
s another point that needs 
to be emphasized. Sovereignty and the 
rule of law — the values that are being 
trashed by those making inappropriate 
Holocaust analogies and calling for 
tearing down the border — are actually 
good for the Jews.
The basic problem Jews faced in the 
1930s was partly the result of restrictive 
U.S. immigration legislation, coupled 
with the anti-Semitic refusal of some 
officials to let in refugees that did qualify 
under the law. But it was also rooted in 
the plain fact that the rule of law had bro-
ken down in Europe, and Nazi aggression 
was aimed at destroying the sovereign 
rights of all nations not named Germany.
If generations of Jews have found a 
haven in the United States, it is because 
it remains a nation of laws. Destroy the 
rule of law — and that is exactly what 
Never Again Action and others who 
share their desire to strip the United 
States of its sovereign right to determine 
who may pass through its border are 
advocating — and no one, least of all 
religious minorities like Jews, will be 
safe. ■

For a related story, please see page 12.
 
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS—
Jewish News Syndicate. 

commentary
Is Support for Open Borders Really
in Tune with Jewish Values?

Jonathan Tobin

(Hebrew Bible) and our rabbis’
 per-
ceived boundaries decide who is a 
Jew and who is not a Jew; who is 
behaving “properly” and who is not; 
and who is a danger to our peo-
ple and who isn’
t, whether Jewish 
or non-Jewish. Nevertheless, our 
rabbis made clear that, while they 
were willing and proud to judge the 
behavior of other Jews, they were 
for the most part profoundly reluc-
tant to cut them out of the commu-
nity. There is a lesson there.
The founder of the Shalom 
Hartman Institute, Rabbi Dr. David 
Hartman, often quoted a text 
(Tosefta Sotah) in which the schools 
of Hillel and Shammai were debat-
ing matters of Jewish law. The text 
then asks, “If the Torah is given by 
a single God, provided by a single 
Shepherd, how is it the case that 
there exist such differing interpreta-
tions (of Jewish Law)?” 
The Tosefta answers the question 
by teaching, “Make yourself a heart 
of many rooms and bring into it the 
words of the house of Shammai and 
the words of the house of Hillel.” 
In other words, Hartman 
explained, a Jew must strive to be a 
“person in whom different opinions 
can reside together … who can feel 
religious conviction and passion 
without the need for simplicity 
and absolute certainty” (A Heart of 
Many Rooms, p. 21).
We live in difficult and com-
plicated times, where the answers 
to our local, national and inter-
national problems — strategically 
and religiously — require deep 
conversations and intricate nuanced 
approaches, as well as a tremendous 
amount of humility and generous 
listening. We look forward to con-
tinuing this dialogue and this learn-
ing with each other and with our 
fellow rabbis; we also look forward 
to continuing this learning and to 
beginning this dialogue with you. 
May we strive to make for our-
selves a heart of many rooms so 
that we can better learn and work 
together, celebrate and mourn 
together and, when appropriate, tear 
down and build up again … togeth-
er. Amen. ■

Rabbi Ariana Silverman serves the Downtown 
Synagogue in Detroit. Rabbi Aaron Starr 
serves Congregation Shaarey Zedek in 
Southfield.

continued from page 8