Shalom,

As Jews — members of a people who have experienced the scourge of demonization and the denial of our humanity — we have a moral and religious obligation to speak up when we bear witness to the oppression of the stranger.

As we are reminded on 36 distinct occasions in our Torah, we bear a special responsibility to the stranger. We are forbidden from oppressing the stranger and must instead love the stranger, for we too were strangers. All people, at some point in their lives, are strangers. Today, we remind our fellow Jews of that existential reality and of the precarious nature of our own safety.

As rabbis serving throughout Canada, we are writing to express our shock and outrage at the inhumane treatment of migrant families at the US border. We are haunted by images of children, including toddlers, being separated from their parents and held in detention centers. We hope that pursuant to the executive order signed in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday (June 20, 2018), sincere and efficient action will be taken to reunite those families already separated and to prevent this cruel outrage from continuing.

We refuse to accept as normal the systematic separation of families. We refuse to accept as normal the scapegoating an entire class of people or ethnicity. We call on all compassionate-minded people to demand that every human being on earth is treated with dignity and to exemplify, in their own political and personal conduct, the love and respect due to all of G-d’s creations.

With prayers for comfort and safety for all,

Rabbi Rena Arshinoff

Rabbi Martin Berman

Rabbi Elizabeth Bolton

Rabbi Catharine Clark

Rabbi Jordan D. Cohen

Rabbi Joshua Corber

Rabbi Boris Dolin

Rabbi Eva Goldfinger

Rabbi Jennifer Gorman

Rabbi Emma Gottlieb

Rabbi Ellen Greenspan

Rabbi Lisa Grushcow

Rabbi Geoffrey Haber

Rabbi Denise Handlarski

Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan

Rabbi Matthew Kaufman

Rabbi Yakov Kerzner

Rabbi Leigh Lerner

Rabbi Aaron Levy

Rabbi Leslie P. Lipson

Rabbi Miriam Margles

Rabbi David Mivasair

Rabbi S. Robert Morais

Rabbi Lionel E. Moses

Rabbi Erin Polansky

Rabbi Jonah Rank

Rabbi Kliel Rose

Rabbi Yossi Sapirman

Rabbi Shalom Schachter

Rabbi Philip Scheim

Rabbi Susan Shamash

Rabbinical student Devon Spier

Rabbi Yael Splansky

Rabbi Steven Schwartzman

Rabbi Karen Soria

Rabbi Adam Stein

Rabbi Lucia Pizarro Wehlen

Rabbi Cory Weiss

Rabbi Raysh Weiss

Rabbi Stephen Wise

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