President Donald Trump (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

We support and commend President Trump for following through on his campaign pledge to protect the American people by stemming migration into this country from high-risk places posing a security threat to America and Americans. Beyond doubt, it is the first and most important duty of a President, or any leader, to protect the lives of a country’s citizens, especially where a possibility exists of terrorists being embedded within a particular immigration flow.

Securing a country’s borders until a more fool-proof method of vetting is established is unassailable and vital, especially in light of how in Europe and here in America lax vetting has resulted in horrendous explosions and deaths of dozens of innocent people as seen, for example, in Orlando, St. Bernardino, Columbus, Paris, Nice, Berlin, Boston, and Barcelona, as well as other places infiltrated by terrorist plants within certain immigrant groups. Some unvetted or poorly vetted migrants or their offspring may possess ideological and religious hostility to Americans and our way of life and our laws. Saving lives of American citizens is a religious, historic and civic duty.

There is no parallel between the Jews who fled Europe in the 1930s, who were, as Jews, specific targets for death and Nazi concentration camps, and many today wishing to escape civil war and turmoil in their Mideast countries. There were no Nazi agents embedded within the fleeing Jews nor did any of the Jews harbor a cultural or religious ideology wishing to sew physical destruction on the American people. There were no rabbis in the 1930s sending forth commands worldwide to destroy the “infidels.”

Many initial roll-outs are subject to some confusion and mishaps; however, we believe that protecting a country’s borders and thereby its citizens is an age-old and reasonable imperative as demonstrated in Scripture, which warns of the need to be wary “Lest those that may be your enemy enter your domain and become thorns in your sides and pins in your eyes.”

Hopefully the situation will one day change, but until then, we applaud President Trump for doing what is in the best interests of the American people.

Rabbi Spero is a theologian, a political and social commentator and is a spokesman for Jews For America. He is author of "Push Back: Reclaiming Our American Judeo-Christian Spirit."

DONATE