Rabbis arrested outside Trump tower for protesting the Muslim ban

[Cha]

Link to tweet

snip//

“For us as Jews, this really hits us in the gut, because we remember that U.S. borders were once closed to us,” Jacobs told ThinkProgress, referencing when the U.S. government turned away thousands of Jewish refugees prior to World War II, fearing they could be Nazi spies. “The language used [to keep Jews out]…is the same language now being used to close our borders based on national origin. It’s a ban that is both immoral and inhumane and that doesn’t keep any of us safe."

Link to tweet

I Thank them so much for their standing up or sitting down as the case may be

[Cha]

1. ETA to OP.. so compelling!

“For us as Jews, this really hits us in the gut, because we remember that U.S. borders were once closed to us,” Jacobs told ThinkProgress, referencing when the U.S. government turned away thousands of Jewish refugees prior to World War II, fearing they could be Nazi spies. “The language used [to keep Jews out]…is the same language now being used to close our borders based on national origin. It’s a ban that is both immoral and inhumane and that doesn’t keep any of us safe.”

[Cha]

2. More from the article @ ThinkProgess on the Rabbis @ trump tower..

“If America stops being America [by refusing refugees], it stops being safe for Jews, and it stops being safe for anyone who is not white and Christian,” she added. “There is an important principle in Judaism that you violate just about every law to save another human being…There is no question that the ban is a life and death situation.”

[Behind the Aegis]

3. As Jews, we are quite familiar with this type of hate.

It isn't just from history books either. Many of us have families where this (rampant bigotry based on religion) was a reality. My great-grandparents fled Russia and Ukraine in 1901/3. The paternal side (Russia) mostly died when their shtetls were liquidated during the pogroms, others fled to Lithuania and Poland (that didn't work out either). Though we think some survived. My maternal great grandparents' families stayed in Ukraine and between pogroms and the Holocaust, none survived that didn't come to the US. My grandfather (both actually) fought in WWII. The Jewish one, a pilot, fought in the European theater, but was still treated like a potential enemy. My father grew up getting into fist-fights almost everyday because he was a "Jew boy" (keep in mind this was after WWII given he was born in 1950). In fifth grade, a classmate threatened to kill me because I was a "Christ-killer", something I didn't even understand.

Despite what too many may think, Jews are very familiar with bigotry and hate. We also are familiar with perseverance and understand we are charged with standing with those who are under threat. It doesn't always happen, but as a group, social justice ranks pretty high with us.

[Cha]

5. Your post made me cry, BtA.. it is so

eloquently poignant. Thank you all for your Social Justice.

This tweet from ThinkProgress was particularly compelling to me for just such reasons. These Rabbis protesting trump for banning Muslims have ages of grievous history behind them. #Never Again

I only see these protests escalating with people from all walks of life standing up for what it right and just.



We have to do all we can.. we have no choice, if we've learned anything from history.

[leftynyc]

11. Mine died in the Warsaw Ghetto

We MUST stand up for anyone who faces the bigotry and hatred that we're all too familiar with. May G-d bless these rabbis and anyone else who is standing (or sitting) for what is right.

[frazzled]

25. My grandparents fled Eastern Europe as well, in the early 1910s

From the area that is now Belarus (then sometimes Poland, sometimes Russia); and from Hungary. My father, too, fought in World War II, in the Pacific Theater. I am your father's age (exactly, I hate to admit). I do not remember facing overt discrimination in the way you describe, perhaps because I was a rather quiet girl.

What I do remember from my childhood was several things: feeling the "otherness" very strongly in ways big and small, especially in school and at holiday times, where I imagined everyone was eating those sparkling glazed hams while my grandmother served up a big plate of boiled tongue and kishke (stuffed intestines); and, then again, remembering how deeply engaged my family and my Jewish community was with supporting the civil rights movement. Because they remembered the hate and discrimination. My rabbi was one of the clergy who was called upon to surround Dr. King when he marched in Selma. And I remember what he told us kids when he returned. He said that no matter what instances of discrimination we might experience (not being able to join certain clubs because of a secret quota; knowing our parents had not been able to buy houses in certain areas because of redlining that excluded Jews), that we needed to imagine what it was like to be a kid whose face was black, who was judged—just by someone simply looking at the color of his or her skin—as being inferior. They didn't even have to know anything about them: they were judged. We were taught what "white" privilege was very early, even though we didn't feel entirely white (read "normal" Christian Americans) ourselves!

Back in the late 50s and early 60s, Jews (or at least a good many of them) stood up for civil rights because they understood. Today, they are standing up against the bigotry of anti-immigration sentiment, because they understand.

[Behind the Aegis]

27. There are family stories of some of the family going to Belarus.

I have yet to discover any ties, thus far, but trudging through documents with a language for which I am very unfamiliar has made it difficult. Jewish genealogy, though, can be petty difficult to track down.

My father grew up in the mid-Atlantic states, so I don't know if that made a difference or not. Like you, I felt that otherness, and that was in the late 70's and early to mid 80s. During Xmas parties, rather than asking about my traditions, I was asked to sit in the hall so as I wouldn't be offended by their celebrations. How fucked up is that?!

When I went to college in SC, I learned an upstate term for Vienna sausages was "Jew dicks" because supposedly we have little cocks. One drunken night, I took a few hicks to task and proved that was a fucking myth! Got a few Nazi salutes, a few "Sieg Heils", and a few other annoyances, but nothing too serious. Most of what I dealt with was just ignorance, rather than outright hate. Now, on the gay "front", that's an entirely different story!

Most of us do know what that "otherness" is like and we work to ensure others don't feel that way. I know it was how I was taught.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Tremendous actions. Thanks, Cha. n/t

[Cha]

6. So Important.. I'm so grateful!

You're Welcome, Judi

[Dorian Gray]

7. One was a rabbi

from Beth Elohim, a synagogue only a few blocks from my home.

WHOO. Way to represent! She is a newish appointee at this synagogue. And while I am not Jewish, I fully support her and their stance. They are brave and amazing.

And I would fully support my parish priest if he were to stand up and do this very thing with the rabbis.

[Cha]

8. These are wonderful, caring, compassionate, people

who know the history of what happens when fascists begin singling out groups of minorities.

I am so heartened that they were there and now they've been arrested but that is nothing to them.

Thank you for enlightening us on the Rabbi from Beth Elohim, Dorian.. someone from your hood is making history!

[Cha]

9. "The demonstration is part of a growing surge of faith-based opposition to trump and his

policies—especially his Muslim ban, which has been condemned by a staggering number of American religious groups. Faith institutions of all stripes have also taken stands against his plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, his various cabinet picks, and his proposal to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, among others."

[Cha]

10. Stand Up America!

[bdamomma]

18. Right on Cha

Wonderful how the rabbis came together, in all this hate and division, people are united and bonding together.

Fcuk you tRump. Hope all that hate consumes you.

[Cha]

20. It really is Love Vs hate.. and Love

Always Wins.. it just takes a detour many times.

We can Do this!#NeverAgain!

Mahalo, bdamomma!

[leftynyc]

12. Thank you for posting, Cha

ALL those who are standing (or sitting) tall and against hatred are my heroes.

[Cha]

13. My Heroes too, lefty!

I am so in awe of them!

[Cha]

14. ***

[Solly Mack]

15. K&R

[Cha]

16. Mahalo, Solly

[Cha]

17. Tens of 1000s of US Jews have declared America must keep our doors open to refugees.

Link to tweet

[bdamomma]

19. K&R

[Cha]

21. Mahalo for the K&R, bdamomma!

Link to tweet

[oasis]

22. RESIST. n/t

[Cha]

31. Resist! Mahalo, oasis

Link to tweet

[ProudLib72]

23. We must give every Democrat in congress

a grogger with which to blot out he-who-shall-not-be-named's name whenever it is mentioned. Just like Haman at Purim.

[Hekate]

24. KnR

[Cha]

32. Mahalo, Hekate

[PatrickforO]

26. I wonder if Rabbi Michael Lerner was one of the protesters.

He's a good guy.

[JudyM]

29. He's an inspiration, for sure. Network of Spiritual Progressives is such s good concept,

unifying progressives across faiths to fight for our progressive values.

[Docreed2003]

28. Such a beautiful protest...

Thanks Cha! Mahalo!!

[Maru Kitteh]

30. Arrested for what? Not bowing before the great leader? Attempting to

make eye contact with her majesty, Ms. HOTUS?

Failing to buy some of the the first daughter-wife Ivanka's shitty Chinese crap?

[Gothmog]

33. I am proud of these Rabbis