Sunday’s ice and cold weather did not deter New Jerseyans from trekking into Battery Park to protest President Donald Trump’s now-stayed ban against U.S. entry of Muslim immigrants from seven nations. “Considering all that the Syrian refugees have gone through, standing outside in bad weather for a few hours was not so much of a hardship,” …
Read MoreOver 100 years ago, Barnett Levine was greeted by the New York skyline and the Statue of Liberty as he arrived in the United States, having fled anti-Semitism and pogroms in his native Poland. On Sunday, his grandson saw those very same sights when he joined about 700 others in this city’s Battery Park downtown …
Read MoreJewish groups welcomed a federal appeals court ruling upholding a stay on President Donald Trump’s ban on the entry of refugees and of travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries. “We applaud the Ninth Circuit’s ruling, and hope that it sends an important message to the nation and the world that the United States is a nation …
Read MoreThe Jewish resettlement agency HIAS is planning a national day of Jewish action on refugees with rallies planned in nearly a dozen states. Rallies are scheduled to be held in New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Denver and San Francisco, among others. The New York rally will be held in Battery Park, in view …
Read MoreWith not much to smile about since Inauguration Day, it has been heartening to see the nearly undivided reaction of the American Jewish community to Donald Trump’s January 27 Executive Order (EO) on immigration and refugee admission – widely considered to constitute a Muslim ban. With one or two glaring exceptions — to which I’ll …
Read MoreRabbi Samuel Gordon of Wilmette’s Congregation Sukkat Shalom was named a 2017 Global Justice Fellow by the American Jewish World Service and visited the Dominican Republic, studying the plight of Dominicans of Haitian descent, whose citizenships have been stripped from them. He spoke Feb. 1 about his trip.
Read MoreAs Jews, we are all too familiar with hateful statements about religious and ethnic minorities that aim to strip people of their dignity and humanity — and can lead to far worse. We understand from millennia of persecution of Jews by governments, religious institutions and populist demagogues that we cannot stand idly by while either …
Read MoreSeveral liberal Jewish groups have decried a leaked draft of an executive order from President Donald Trump that would temporarily bar refugees and immigrants from some Muslim countries from entering the United States. The draft, which was leaked to the media Wednesday, bars the entrance of noncitizens from certain Muslim-majority countries, including Iraq, Iran, Syria, …
Read MoreWhy did I march in the Women’s March in NYC this weekend? Because I learned from my father that, when you believe in the rightness of something, make it happen. He died last week at age 95. During shiva, the seven-day period of mourning for him which just concluded, I reflected on his life. As …
Read MoreFrom Chicago to Berlin, hundreds of thousands participated in marches tied to the Washington Women’s March on Saturday. Marchers of all ages and genders gathered at Logan Square early in the day, where health care and references to female anatomy dominated the most creative and sarcastic signs. Beth David Reform Congregation held what they called …
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