This text was sent in an email blast on Wednesday, July 3, 2019. Please feel free to share it, and use any or all of the resources listed.
Together, we can make a difference.
Dear Rodeph Sholom Family,
Your CRS clergy is paying close attention to developing news about the status of detention centers for immigrants to our country. We are shocked and disturbed by the inhumane treatment of these individuals, by the unclean hygienic conditions in which they are forced to wait, and by the tearing apart of families at the hands of our own government.
As Jews, who know the plight of the stranger and the migrant, as human beings who cannot ignore the cries of our brothers and sisters, we must not stand idly by.
We are proud of our congregation’s legacy of fighting for the rights of the most vulnerable among us, but we can and must do more. Below, please find opportunities to raise your voice, to lend your help and resources, and to continue the fight for dignified treatment for all who seek refuge within our country.
Let us remember that none of us is free until all of us are free.
Yours in hope,
Rabbi Robert N. Levine, D.D.
Cantor Rebecca Garfein, D.M.
Rabbi Benjamin H. Spratt
Cantor Shayna De Lowe
Rabbi Greg D. Weitzman
Rabbi Juliana S. Karol
Peter Ehrenberg, Chair of Social Action
VOLUNTEER
- Volunteer with the New Sanctuary Coalition. Attend accompaniment training at Congregation Rodeph Sholom on July 10th at 6:00 PM. Find additional opportunities.
ADVOCATE
- Lights for Liberty Rally. After Shabbat services on Friday July 12th, 2019 accompany Rabbi Karol to Foley Square for Lights for Liberty: A Vigil to End Human Detention Camps. We will join thousands of Americans to protest the inhumane conditions faced by refugees.
- Take Action for a Friend in Sanctuary. Deborah Barrios has been in sanctuary at St. Paul and St. Andrew for one year, after she was stopped by ICE for a fake motor vehicle violation. You can take action by contacting ICE to ask that they reconsider her request for a stay of deportation.
- Call Congress, the mayor and local representatives. Contact your members of Congress and tell them that you want impending raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be called off and detention conditions improved.
DONATE
- Donate to a bail fund. Pilar Weiss, project director of the National Bail Fund Network, says one of the most effective ways to reunite immigrants separated from their families is to assist with paying their bail, which can cost anywhere from $1,500 to $80,500.
- Support humanitarian aid organizations including:
- American Civil Liberties Union
- United We Dream
- Mijente
- Immigrant Families Together
- Immigrant Justice Corps
- New Sanctuary Coalition in New York
- Las Americas in El Paso and Raices in Texas
- Americans for Immigrant Justice in Florida
- Denver Immigrant Legal Services Fund in Colorado
- HIAS
