We do not tend to think of Mordecai as a displaced person, but perhaps we should. His family, we are told, had been exiled from Jerusalem (Esther 2:6) by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Mordecai himself embraces this placelessness. Out of home in the world, the man refuses to come indoors. King Achashverosh cavorts in lavish…
The story of evil trying to triumph over good is a story the Jewish community knows well. Every Purim, we remember the heroic actions of Queen Esther, who took a stand against evil and reversed the plot of a man who planned to persecute and annihilate the Jewish people. Her quiet diplomacy helped her husband,…
“Ana Surya,” said Maryam, a girl no older than ten, with her hand out. It was night in Taksim Square, Istanbul, as she guided me while holding my hand to her widowed mother, who was breastfeeding her newborn child on the streets. They were a Syrian Kurdish family that had fled Khobani. The mother told…
On March 6, President Trump issued his Travel Ban 2.0 — officially called “Executive Order Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States.” Like its predecessor, which federal courts largely blocked, the latest travel ban brands refugees and other foreigners as a dangerous menace to our country and restricts the entry of…
MILWAUKEE (JTA) — I was privileged recently to participate as the sole Jewish voice at a news conference with Latino leaders, community activists and faith groups at which we spoke loudly and clearly in support of compassionate immigration policies. I told the people gathered about a piece of Jewish history I had only recently discovered…
I would never dare call myself a refugee. Nor would I ever hold up a sign that reads “I am a refugee.” Although, technically, I’m a refugee. That is, I’m an immigrant who had entered the United States thanks to my refugee status. That was what they called it in those days — “Refugee Status.”…
Each Passover, as we gather around Seder tables with glasses of sweet wine and with plates overflowing with charoset, egg and bitter herbs, Jews read the words “Arami oved Avi,” which translates to “My father was a wandering Aramean.” Slavery and liberation are personal; we read the story in the first person: The Exodus happened…
Almost 40 years ago, when my husband and I were newlyweds, I spotted a flier on a bulletin board asking about volunteers to assist Russian Jewish immigrants moving to the Twin Cities. “Let’s do it,” I told my husband. “It’s only a six-month commitment. We’ll be in, we’ll be out, and we’ll get some mitzvah…
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