August 8 • 2019 15
jn

Night of Learning

Diverse group of rabbis reinforces obligation
to treat all strangers 
 humanely.

Speakers at the recent ADL and JCRC/ADL event on immigration

M

any Americans are sad-
dened and angered by the 
videos, photos and firsthand 
accounts of immigrant families sepa-
rated at the southern U.S. border and 
often sent to over-crowded, inadequate 
detention facilities. 
As the flow of refugees fleeing 
violence and poverty increases, U.S. 
government officials, human rights 
activists, immigration advocates and 
American citizens dispute how these 
would-be immigrants should be treated.
A group of 17 local rabbis from five 
streams of Judaism, as well as represen-
tatives from several Jewish nonprofit 
agencies, presented a unified view of the 
obligation of Jews to welcome strangers. 
They spoke at an educational program 
titled “Strangers in our Midst — Texts for 
Jewish learning about the crisis on our 
southern border” presented Aug. 1 by 
the Anti-Defamation League Michigan 
Region and the Jewish Community 
Relations Council/AJC at Temple Beth 
El in Bloomfield Township.
The program idea came from a recent 
event hosted by U.S. Congressman 
Andy Levin that reported on his trip to 
the border with religious leaders.
Rabbi Josh Whinston of Temple 
Beth Emeth in Ann Arbor spoke as 
a “personal witness” who has visited 
immigrant detention centers and helped 
a mother “whose children were torn 
from her.
”
“She lived in a town controlled by a 
gang and knew when her son reached 
a certain age he would face the choice 
of joining the gang or being killed,
” 
Whinston said. Nonetheless, she told 
him if she knew her children would 
be separated from her in the U.S., she 

would have remained and faced the 
threats of violence in her hometown.
Speakers discussed biblical sources, 
commentary from the Midrash and the 
perspective of rabbis from the 19th to 
and 21st centuries. Citing Deuteronomy, 
Rabbi Asher Lopatin of Kehillat Etz 
Chayim in Oak Park said we are told to 
welcome and bring in strangers. 
“If we turn them away, we are doing 
desecration of our country, of being 
Jewish,
” he said. “You learn the Torah so 
you can do — to bring us to action.
”
Speakers reminded the audience of 
the Jewish history of slavery in Egypt 
and the Jewish belief that all people are 
created in the image of God. However, 
the Jewish people were not exempt 
from “baseless hatred” — their “xeno-
phobia” resulted in the destruction of 
the Second Temple. 
Rabbi Jennifer Lader of Temple Israel 
in West Bloomfield gave a chronology 
of recent immigration events in the U.S. 
“When we said, ‘
Never again,
’
 we meant 
never again. If I am only for myself, 
who am I?” she asked.
Rabbi Ariana Silverman of the Isaac 
Agree Downtown Synagogue in Detroit 
cited 36 times that the Bible commands 
that strangers be welcomed and treated 
humanely — evidence this is important 
and difficult to accomplish.
Program attendees were urged to get 
involved in the immigration issue by 
immigration lawyer Ruby Robinson, 
vice president of JCRC/AJC. He rec-
ommended talking to elected officials 
about immigration and supporting 
efforts to welcome immigrants. ■

For local and national resources for 
action, go to jcrcajc.org/take-action. 

SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

JEFF AISEN

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER 
ZEKELMAN FAMILY CAMPUS

Discovery & Recovery: 

Holocaust Stolen Art and the 

Hungarian Documents

Wednesday, August 14 2 PM

 
holocaustcenter.org

 
RSVP by August 12 to 248.536.9612 or www.holocaustcenter.org/art

Free with museum admission or membership

Clara Garbon-Radnoti and
Jonathan H. Schwartz

Photo credit: Max Ortiz, The Detroit News



Charlie Langton


Jonathan H. Schwartz 

Clara 

Garbon-Radnoti





 

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