Rabbi Jonathan Klein analyzes the history of Judaism during an educational forum at Temple Israel on Sunday, Aug 27.
During an educational forum at Temple Israel on Sunday, Aug. 27, Rabbi and Executive Director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) Jonathan Klein discussed the story of Abraham and his characterization as an alien.
In this case, an alien is defined as a foreigner who is not considered a citizen in the country they are or wish to be living in.
Klein explained that the story took place before Adam and Eve. It began when Abraham’s wife, Sarah, died, and he had to purchase land to begin his new life.
“[Abraham had] to go to the people and actually purchase land, and that’s considered a very poor moment in religious-zionist history because that’s where land ownership first starts,” Klein said. “But it is important to understand that he says, ‘[…] I am a resident alien among you.’ There’s a recognition that he is not a native person to that land. So, our very founder of our religion is seen as a migrant, as an immigrant.”
Klein then described the followers and nomadic roots of Judaism.
“I think that most of us understand that the entire story of the Exodus is about our people being a band of nomads— semi-nomadic into the desert. We spend 38 years in Kadesh Barnea and the other two years we are rambling around,” he said. “But all of it is on our way to a land.”
The arrival of unfamiliar people during the Exodus parallels with immigration trends over the years, and Klein tied in conflict immigrants face today.
“No matter how we feel about any debate around immigration, we know that the experience of the immigrant must be a tough one and that there is deep vulnerability,” he said. “Especially because we see the way countries throughout the world have treated immigrants. It is a human nature to be afraid of those who are different than us, and the United States is no different. So, from that perspective, we have a lot of people coming with a lot of fears and a lot of anxieties.”
Over the years, there have been three waves of Jewish immigration, and Klein explained each one.
The first— the Sephardic wave— was around the 1600s and 1700s.
“People from countries like Brazil and Spain, who came to the United States seeking opportunities as merchants,” Klein said. “It’s no surprise because back then before the emancipation and before the Enlightenment, before 1789 the French Revolution, the Jewish experience was solidly middle class— forced into the position of being the trade people.”
The next wave began in the mid 1700s and included the migration of Germanic people. Klein said that many of the migrants fled their homeland to have more opportunities, escape oppression or seek a better life.
Many of the Germanic Jews settled in Cincinnati.
The final wave of Jewish immigration was the Eastern European phase, which began in the late 1800s. Many Jews were looking to escape persecution and oppression, and the majority settled in the lower east side of New York.
Despite the three waves of Jewish immigrants, there had been many times Jews have been turned away and not allowed entry to America, and Klein explained one of these unfortunate times.
“The S.S. St. Louis was a ship that had 900 people on board that was refused entry, first to Cuba, then to the United States. This was 1938, before the war even began, but it was clear that Nazism was spreading,” he said. “It had to go all the way back to Germany, and I don’t remember the last count, but a significant percentage of those families were wiped out in the Holocaust. And that’s because this country would not let them in.”
We know that the experience of the immigrant must be a tough one and that there is deep vulnerability.
— Rabbi Jonathan Klein
Klein said that the ship was refused entry because of America’s not wanting to accept “undesirables.” Americans had developed certain rhetoric surrounding the immigration of Jewish people, and some believed Jews were communists or that they would use up too many resources.
Although many Jews were refused entry, a few settled in America and made the most out of limited opportunity.
“We have entered into the upper echelons of power, we have been able to move into suburban homes, we are homeowners— not all of us. There are plenty of poor Jews, so please don’t throw tomatoes at me for being insensitive to those who are struggling,” Klein explained. “But for the most part, as a community, we have built institutions that have protected us.”
After Klein finished explaining the Jewish immigration history, Congressman Alan Lowenthal, who represents California’s 47th District, spoke from a political perspective on immigration.
“We have a broken immigration system that has been broken for a long time, and I am also going to preface what I am going to say by saying ‘I love President Obama, and I miss President Obama,'” Lowenthal said. “I always knew where he stood, and I knew that his soul and his heart was in the right direction.”
Lowenthal said that he knew that he could talk to Obama and his administration regarding the immigration system. However, he explained that that communication and trust are no longer available with President Donald Trump and his administration.
“When we deal with immigration issues, Congress is out and not responding,” Lowenthal said.
In terms of future immigration laws, Lowenthal explained that something needs to change.
“I think a humane system is not a partisan issue,” he said. “I mean, you can have different kinds of immigration laws, but they have to be administered humanely with respect for all.”
Politically, Lowenthal is a sponsor of the Statue of Liberty Values Act (SOLVE).
According to the official website of SOLVE, the act is in response to Trump’s immigration executive order titled ”Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.” SOLVE aims to ensure that the order should have no force or effect, and the act limits federal funds towards Trump’s executive order.
Lowenthal and his team had to revise the act twice because of Trump’s Muslim ban, and now the Supreme Court is reviewing the act.
Klein added that temples should respond to issues circulating immigration from a local perspective.
“I think for us, as Jews, it’s particularly important that we figure out how to relate to the Muslim community, which is another area of all of this conversation,” he said. “But it is really, really important that we find avenues of being in real relationship with folks that are not in the room— the ones that actually have the most right now to lose because of this president and his Congress.”
The Muslim community, in this case, is the stranger of today’s generation that was the Abraham of yesterday’s generation.
“Those of us that are interested in restrictive immigration, let’s not forget it was not so long ago,” Klein said. “We should love the stranger because we were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
