Rabbis spoke. Imams spoke. Pastors, ministers, a cardinal spoke. The message was the same.: “Our faith tells us to welcome the stranger. We must follow our faith.”
There are 500,000 undocumented immigrants living in New Jersey – 5.4% of the state’s population – and they are living in fear. No one is safe, even the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) students that President Trump said would be “treated with heart”. Yet there are two DACA students in our area – one at Rutgers who arrived from the Dominican Republic at age 4 and another at NYU who arrived from Iraq at age 10 – who are under threat of deportation. Neither is a bad hombre.
What we can each do is to show up and visibly show our support. Four Shomrei members, as well as Rabbi Greenstein, did just that at an interfaith rally last Thursday night at Bethany Baptist Church in Newark. The rally was organized by Faith in New Jersey and that’s something else we can do – support organizations that are working to assist undocumented persons.
What we can also do is vote – not just in presidential elections but in midterm elections and local elections. I was struck that the voter turnout in France’s recent election was considered low – yet the turnout was over 75% of registered voters. The US had its highest voter turnout rate in 2008 for President Obama’s first election – 57% – and many elections do not net even half of eligible voters.
In a time of deep divisions in our country, it is heartening to see people of varied faiths and backgrounds coming together over a humanitarian issue, trying to ensure that no one stands or fights alone.
Click here to read more about the rally.
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