Immigration Rally in DC on 9/7: Represent!
From Jewish FundS for Justice:
On Thursday, September 7, thousands will rally in support of comprehensive immigration reform and immigrants’ rights.
Join the Jewish contingent at this rally, either by riding with us from NYC, or by meeting us in Washington, DC for lunch and more. Note that you must register if you plan to join us either on the bus or for lunch.
The effort to mobilize Jewish support is a project of the Jewish Task Force for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, a broad coalition of twenty Jewish organizations recently co-convened by Jewish FundS for Justice and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society . The buses from New York are sponsored by the Jewish FundS for Justice.
The rally calls for:
1. Path to citizenship for millions of hard-working immigrants
here today and those who come in the future.
2. Keeping all of our families together by reducing backlogs
and ending deportations.
3. Protections for immigrant and U.S.-born workers.
4. Strong protections of civil rights & civil liberties for all.
We have a limited number of seats available on the New York bus, so click here to reserve your spot today. The bus will leave at 8:30am from Congregation Ansche Chesed on 100th and West End Ave in Manhattan. All are invited to join Ansche Chesed for an egalitarian, traditional minyan at 7:20 that morning. We will enjoy a bagel breakfast on the bus, courtesy of the Workman’s Circle.
At 1PM, the Jewish contingent (from NY, DC & everywhere else) will gather at the George Washington University Hillel (23rd and H, NW) for a kosher dairy lunch, sponsored by the HIAS, learning about Judaism and immigration, sign-making and socializing. From there, we will walk together to the mall for the 4PM rally.
The New York bus will leave at approximately 6:30 PM from RFK stadium (blue or orange line to the Stadium/Armory station). Those who wish to stay in DC longer may join in a march to the White House from 6-8PM.
Please join us to show your support for comprehensive immigration reform! If you want to come either on the buses or for the pre-rally lunch and learn, sign up here.
The members of the Jewish Task Force for Comprehensive Immigration Reform are:
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (co-convener), Jewish FundS for Justice (co-convener), American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Avodah, Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, Jewish Community Action, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Jewish Labor Committee, JCRC-Tucson, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Jews United for Justice, National Council of Jewish Women, Progressive Jewish Alliance, Religious Action Center, Shalom Center, UJA Federation-New York, United Jewish Communities, Workman’s Circle-Arbeiter Ring
Since when has “jewish” become a brand name? And a cheap one at that since it’s slapped on basically anything.
I don’t get it formermuslim. What do you mean?
Perhaps he means that he is a hateful individual who has no concept of the principle of btselem elohim.
once you are down in DC on thursday evening, you might as well spend shabbos, right?
as it just so happens, Tikkun Leil Shabbat is meeting that friday evening: .
Why is this a good goal? Is it because we were once immigrants who were let into this country? I thought that our ancestors entered this country legally, not by breaching a border. Why does a person who violates the law to enter this country deserve to be placed in line ahead of the law abiding individual who patiently waits his or her turn to enter the country? How will allowing illegal immigrants to become citizens prevent more illegal immigrants from coming here? If it’s okay for any illegal immigrant to enter the US and then reside here, what does this say about our laws as a nation? The constant influx of such workers, by the way, is tacitly encouraged by both governments and by certain businesses that need to keep wages low. The problem is that it forces low wages across the board. The illegal immigrants take away work from legal immigrants, or from illegal immigrants who preceded them. They also take work from legal Americans who may not have the education necessary to get non-manual-labor jobs or if they don’t take the work away, they certainly do keep wages far below what is needed to survive in many markets in the US.
Sorry, but while I agree with some sort of organized process to allow these illegal immigrants to work here temporarily and then return to their homes for a cool-off period before being allowed to return for another temporary tenure in the US, I think it’s entirely misguided to allow them to become residents or citizens of the US.
Fellow jews, come watch this movie its whats really going on with arab education and the horrible teachings going on in the ME, we must fight them, unite against them or we will have another holocaust
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1432100742477106895
anyone going from boston?
“I thought that our ancestors entered this country legally, not by breaching a border.”
Some did, some didn’t, and context matters. If I was fleeing the pogroms in Russia or Ukraine I would’ve got myself and my family to this country any way I could even if that meant “breaching a border.” Plus, back in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there were restrictions on Jewish immigration. I’m certain some Jews came to this country illegally back then.
Legally schmegally, who says it’s a pro-illegals rally? It’s for Comprehensive Immigration reform.
First, while your ancestors might have been fortunate enough to be allowed in legally, a lot of would-have-been ancestors perished in the fires of the Holocaust because of immigration quotas and policies. And, probably in large part because so many people get hot and bothered over illegal immigration, legal immigration, asylum, and dealing realistically with those who came illegally (including those who had no say in the matter such as minors or trafficked domestics and sex workers) all have been victims of “anti-illegal” politics.
Our immigration laws are f*d up. They punish children and the innocent. They are full of arbitrary constraints. I had a client who came to the US as an asylee. She was raped and brutalized based on her ethnicity. She’d seen her entire family killed except for a sister who already lived in the US and her husband who was imprisoned and may be dead. She gave up everything to come to the US and find her sister. She sought asylum and was denied because, although the interview officer found her to be credible, she had no paperwork to prove that she’d entered the US less than a year before she claimed asylum (a sympathetic diplomat had allowed her to borrow a passport). Who cares if she’s been here for more than a year when her background makes her a valid asylee under US and international law? We do. Because she couldn’t prove it she was forced to wait over a year, with her future uncertain, and then undergo a trial, knowing she might be sent back at any time. She was fortunate enough to be among the few granted a volunteer lawyer. She had help reviewing her testimony (which would cause her to shake, sweat, cry, and faint) and with what would have been impossibly expensive pro bono investigators, translators, lawyers, etc. she was able to collect acceptable evidence and was finally awarded asylum.
And then there’s the one about a friend who was threatened with deportation in her 30s when authorities (and she!) learned that her mother had lied about her father’s identity to immigrate “legally” decades ago.
The backlogs are outrageous. The laws are unrealistic. Some interviewers and judges are inhumane.
Well stated, Siviyo. There is a long history of immigration quotas against Jews in the U.S. going back to the nineteenth century, if not before. I think if me and my family was fleeing a pogrom, ghettoization, being excluded from an occupation, let alone the Holocaust, I would do whatever I could to get me and my family somewhere else, even if that meant going over the border illegally. Of course those laws have changed over time but we never should forget our own peoples’ experience of wandering and being forced to flee from place to place.
Those cases are seriously screwed up.
I’m sure you know about these folks but here’s a link if you don’t:
HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
http://www.hias.org/
To fulfill its mission, HIAS:
* Provides information and a broad program of services at all stages of the migration process for refugees and migrants
* Serves as a communications link between clients, communities of resettlement and government authorities
* Advocates for fair and just policies affecting refugees and immigrants
* Provides a cultural orientation for those legally eligible to enter the U.S. as refugees
Aliza–There isn’t a Jewish contingent, per se, going from Boston, but the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition (http://www.miracoalition.org/) is running buses. You can take their bus & then meet up with us for lunch. Or perhaps there are a few Bostonians who want to drive down together?