‘Welcome the stranger’: words U.S.A should live by

By Joel  H. Cohen

NEW YORK —  A recent full-page ad in the New York Times really resonated with me, and I hope it registered with all Americans, Jews especially, as well.

It was not selling a product or technology, but a long-held, seemingly endangered principle: welcoming the stranger.

A tribute “with much love and respected” from his family, to Lee A. Iacocca, who had just died, the ad showed a photo of the recently deceased renowned automotive executive against that of the Statue Liberty, followed by this quote:

“All the success I’ve had, all the jobs I’ve saved and the lives I’ve influenced would never have happened if my parents had been turned away at Ellis Island.”

Our parents and grandparents may not have had anything approaching his memorable career, but they became contributing citizens, raised families, worked hard, supported charitable causes…all of which would not have been possible if they’d been turned down at Ellis Island or Galveston, or any port of entry.

For many, any such rejection could have meant extermination in the Holocaust.

So I find it particularly sad and irritating when Jews  turn a blind or jaundiced eye to desperate refugees seeking asylum in the United States. In a sense, we were all asylum-seekers.

We’re constantly reminded of the admonition from Exodus in the Pesach Haggadah: “You shall not oppress or mistreat a stranger, for you were strangers in Egypt. Do not afflict the widow or the orphan.”  And even those unfamiliar with the words should have the concept embedded in their DNA.

We’ve been strangers not only in Egypt, but in many nations, even in the good old USA, as those who remember the saga of the St. Louis, the ship denied docking in Havana and the USA, can recall. Forced to return to Europe, more than 200 of its passengers died in the Holocaust.

A friend for decades is a man who, as a young teenager, was aboard the St. Louis with his mother and sister. He could see his father in a boat in Havana harbor, but of course could not join him there. After the St. Louis was denied a landing in the United States, it returned to Europe, where 254 of its passengers perished. Our friend and his reunited family were among the lucky ones, entering the United States later and settling on Staten Island, NY. There, he married a local young woman, had two sons who would join him in his successful real estate business, served in the U .S. Army in WW II in Europe, and was named a city tax commissioner.

By far the worst current Administration policy that some excuse is the barbaric separation of children from their parents, with authorities often losing the whereabouts of the youngsters. If anything indicates we’ve lost our moral compass, this does.

The whole concept of protecting our southern border is not far behind, with teens and grown-ups forced to endure horrible conditions, and many of the border-protectors having ICE in their veins – and some, ICE in their souls.

Vice President Pence  toured one of the detention centers — some would say concentration camps – and witnessed first-hand the intense overcrowding (no room for everyone to lie down), the intense heat, the overpowering odor and lack of adequate supplies (soap, blankets, mattresses).

His words of consolation to those interred and others interested in their plight: blame the Democrats.

The latest wrinkle, reminiscent of the Gestapo, is a schedule of fear-inspiring deportation raids in 10 major cities, with targets including even families of U.S. servicemen and women on active duty. Presumably the president’s failed attempt to include a question about citizenship on census forms was a thinly veiled attempt to identify potential targets for deportation.

Mayors of several of those cities, at least one governor, and the ACLU in a suit  were warning possible targets to demand search warrants before opening their doors, in other words, due process.

These protestations against the administration’s cruel practices, particularly the family separation policy, are not a call for open borders and an end to vetting of asylum-seekers…It’s essentially just a call for compassion, even if the president has charged “they’re not sending us their best people, but rapists and drug lords “ (4- and 6-year-olds?)

Pastor Martin Niemöller’s oft-quoted words still have meaning for us:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Emma Lazarus, granddaughter of Jewish immigrants, is the author of the words that are the very keynote of our nation’s welcome to immigrants, etched on the base  of the Statue of Liberty

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Lately, the lamp seems to be dimming, and the golden door showing signs of tarnish. So every one of us must act: write our congressman, senator, local officials, write to our newspapers, demonstrate, ask our rabbis to treat the subject of immigration in their Shabbos  sermons.,,and bring compassion into the mix.

It’s the least we can do for our fellow immigrants.

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Cohen is a freelance writer based in New York City.