JK Rowling Blasts Trump With A Torah Quote Over Family Separation

JK Rowling isn’t joking this time Image by Getty Images

By Jenny Singer July 4, 2018

In the early hours of the fourth of July, “Harry Potter” scribe JK Rowling took to Twitter to denounce the Trump administration’s family separation policies and resulting decisions to force toddlers as young as three years old to represent themselves in court.

It’s so awful we could laugh. Or drink. But Rowling, who 4,224 pages later has become the conscience of hundreds of millions, did us one better: She reached for her Bible.

Rowling cites a passage of the Torah from Exodus, in which God delivers a list of commandments to the Israelites. “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt,” Rowling quotes, above a video showing a tiny immigrant children appearing before a judges without lawyers.

‘You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.’

Exodus 22:21
New American Standard Bible https://t.co/W3CNINp8g5

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 4, 2018

Rowling’s quotation is choice. But the next few verses of Exodus apply as well:

You shall not afflict any widow or orphan. If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry; and My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless. (Exodus, 22:22-24.)

Happy fourth of July from JK Rowling and from us at the Schmooze. May it be a day of not just celebration, but justice.

Jenny Singer is the deputy lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at Singer@forward.com or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

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