Friday night I attended a Lights of Liberty event. There was a lot of online rabbinic chatter about how to do this and still observe Shabbat. I chose to go by hosting Shabbat dinner for some friends and then we all went. The event was scheduled in Elgin between 7 and 8 and before candlelighting at 8:11. There was opportunity for teaching about this important topic, some laughter and since my congregation has no formal services on Friday in the summer, a chance to host Shabbat dinner, something my husband and I miss in the summer.

The event itself was important. It filled Christ the Lord Lutheran Church. The pastor there talked about Jesus as a refugee and what happened when his church in Manhattan put up a sign that said Immigrants Welcome. It was smeared with as he put it crap. But Jesus, born in a manger, was used to crap. Jesus taught us to “Love our neighbors as ourselves and to welcome the stranger. Jesus taught us to feed the stranger and offer drink to the thirsty. To everyone. There were remarks from other clergy. The singing of This Land is Your Land and We Shall Overcome. We were assured by the mayor of Elgin that we will not help ICE if they come to Elgin. That he has directed the police to protect the rights of residents and not to help ICE. The powerful remarks of the executive director of Women on the Border. And the haunting, first hand accounts of children separated from their parents, telling horrific first hand accounts of deplorable conditions. I didn’t know if I was listening to stories of children at Terezin from the book, “I never saw another butterfly” or current stories here.

People wanted a copy of my remarks, some of which are repeated from a recent sermon:

You might think that the scarf I am wearing is my prayer shawl, my tallit, or a symbol of pride. It actually is neither. I chose to wear this tonight because I purchased it in Guatemala, when I was there as a Global Justice Fellow with American Jewish World Service. My Kippah, is also from Guatemala. One of the most remarkable memories of that trip was the statue to their hero, the migrant who has made it to the United States and sends back money to their relatives left behind.

I have a Guatemalan son-in-law who in 1983 was airlifted off a football field in Guatemala City in 1983, when the violence in Guatemala was unspeakable and people were being “disappeared”. That is a euphemism for kidnapped and killed. No, murdered.

I have a nephew, who my brother-in-law and sister-in-law rescued from the Killing Fields of Cambodia. He is now an American citizen with an electrical engineering degree from the University of Arizona, married to an Israeli and working for the US Navy.

They are the lucky ones. They made it here and have “made it in America”. Exactly the kind of citizens we want in this country. I often hear about the “rule of law” and that we in America need to uphold the “rule of law”. That’s why we need to separate these illegal children and that’s why we need to deport these people. Let me be clear. We in the United States are not upholding our own law. And no person is illegal.

Let me tell you another story: The story of Greta. Greta was a teenager when she arrived in Saint Louis and was rescued by my mother’s own family: My mother’s own words, “My first recollection of Greta Westerfeld was her German accent and her long braids. She was the first of the children sent for safety in St. Louis to escape the War in Europe. I imagine she was terrified. She came to live with the Friedmans who were not related and a middle-aged childless couple. When they took her to my stepfather, the pediatrician, he said, “I have a kid her age. We must get them together.” The Friedmans didn’t know much about ten year olds, but always made me feel welcome in their house…At first Greta was very shy. And even her clothes were different. She word dark skirts with white blouses and long wool stockings. I guess my mother helped Mrs. Friedman buy American clothes like the other kids wore. Greta went to our school, joined our Girl Scout troop, went camping with us and became part of the group. We all knew she worried about her family who were still in Germany and dreaded their fate.”

Often times I hear people say, “We didn’t know what was happening in Europe during the war.” The Jewish community of Saint Louis in the 30s and 40s certainly knew what was happening in Europe, and tried, despite closed borders, to desperately rescue as many people as possible. Greta’s family did not survive. Greta eventually married and moved to New Jersey to begin her new life. What my mother doesn’t say in her account that I remember so vividly. She died in the late 1960s. Much like in the novel Sarah’s Key, some said of a broken heart. That’s a euphemism. Let’s be clear. All those years later, she killed herself.

My family, because of the Holocaust has worked on refugee issues for decades. We’ve worked as attorneys, immigration judges, real estate agents and/or social workers with the immigrant community, sponsors, foster parents and I did an internship with Refugee Immigration Ministry which works with asylum seekers in Massachusetts. As part of that internship we fought against for profit jails. That was 2001. Jails that were housing children. That was a year we all remember. On the Friday after 9/11, at our weekly staff meeting the executive director said that our clients were now at risk and fearful. If the United States was under attack, they wondered, where else could they run. Haunting.

We’ve done all that because our US borders were not open when Jews in Europe needed it most. The story of the USS Saint Louis haunts us and like Jews everywhere we have vowed to remember, to never forget and to pledge Never Again to anyone anywhere.

None of that matters. Let me be clear. Very, very clear. Our country’s policy on immigration, detention and deportation is wrong. Period. The idea that children are forcibly removed from their parents is unconsciousable. And like Greta likely to cause permanent damage.

The Jewish tradition is clear. 36 times in Torah it tells us to take care of the widow, the orphan, the stranger. The ger in Hebrew, the soujouner, the resident alien, the person who has chosen to join with us. There is to be one law for citizen and sojourner alike. One law. I have the full list of quotes.

But none of that matters. The only thing that matters is that we stop these raids that are supposed to begin this weekend. Now. That we close these detention centers. Now. That we return children who have been separated from their parents. Now. That we uphold US and international law concerning refugees and asylum seekers. That we provide clean, safe water, adequate food, blankets, soap, toothbrushes, and medical attention. Now. Otherwise, we are no better than the repressive regimes we have sent our troops into fight around the world. Otherwise there will be other Gretas and Henrys and Edgars. The time is now.

My tradition is clear. Love your neighbor. Love the stranger. The time is now.