We see them on TV and in photos – refugees, bunched up at border crossings like bushels of human beings, desperate for help.
Yet Islamist terror in Paris has led some to question whether we should welcome Syrian refugees to Wisconsin. Gov. Scott Walker says the state will not accept any Syrian refugees, adding in a statement that “our first priority must be to protect our citizens.”
The Obama administration had previously announced – before the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 130 in Paris – that the United States would accept 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year.
What should the Jewish response be? We are a people tied to chesed and tikkun olam (loving-kindness and repairing the world). We have at times lived the refugee experience, yet in this community we are also Wisconsinites and Americans, with all the same fears as our neighbors. And we, the Jewish people, have been locked in our own struggles with the Islamic world.
The Chronicle reached out to five local Jewish leaders for their own, personal rulings on this issue. To all, we asked, “Should Wisconsin welcome Syrian refugees?”
Associate Professor Rachel Buff
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Buff, an immigration historian, speaks with passion on the issue.
“It is the moral, the ethical and legal thing to do,” she said. “I feel very strongly about this.”
Immigration is a federal process and Walker has no legal ability to bar refugees from entry to Wisconsin, she said. (Buff has a tongue-in-cheek message for Walker: “Finish your college education.”)
“I don’t think Muslim communities favor terrorism any more than any other community,” she said, noting that the late Rabbi Meir Kahane had been accused of terrorism.
“Thirty-six times in the Torah it says you have to welcome the stranger,” she said. “Game over.”
Also, the United Nations model for refugees comes from the Shoah (Holocaust), she said. We Jews have a lot of experience with this topic, she noted.
“These people are going to die in refugee camps this winter.”
“I would say that we’re actually commanded to,” Chertkoff said. “That it’s a mitzvah to welcome Syrian refugees.”
He quoted the Torah: “The stranger who sojourns with you shall be as a native from among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
“We know only too well from our religious heritage and our historical experience what it means to seek refuge in times of violence,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that it’s not hard because of the threats that are emanating from that region of the world and from terrorism.”
That something is hard is not a reason to desist from it, Chertkoff said.
Chertkoff also referenced the poem from the Statue of Liberty, written by Jewish poet Emma Lazarus. It reads in part, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Welcoming people causes cultural barriers to collapse, Chertkoff said, noting that “rejecting people out of fear or xenophobia actually teaches the opposite of our values.”
“From one side, obviously my heart goes out to them. I think Muslims are the first people who suffer from this terrorism.” Milchtein said. “From another side I think it’s almost unique circumstances.”
Terrorists can sneak into the United States posing as refugees, he said. He feels it’s different from refugees coming to America before World War II.
It seems many refugees are now out of immediate danger, he added, though he understands that if nations close their doors in the future, danger will return for them.
“If we can verify that these people don’t pose a danger, no matter what their religion is, then I don’t see a problem with them coming to Wisconsin or any other place,” Milchtein said.
But he added that the government is first responsible for our safety. “I’m sure there are opportunities for alternative options… in Muslim countries,” Milchtein said.
An immigrant himself, he said it’s painful to hear negative things about immigrants, “but at the same time I understand the real concern.”
CEO and President Hannah Rosenthal
Milwaukee Jewish Federation
“I don’t think 937 is too much to ask of a state of more than five million people,” said Rosenthal, referring to the number of refugees state Rep. Daniel Riemer, D-Milwaukee, proposes to welcome. (See his column, page 23.)
The rhetoric over bringing Syrian refugees to America has “escalated shamefully,” she said.
“How can we as Jews stand by while office holders and candidates are calling for admitting only Christians?” Rosenthal said. “Our compassion, our commandments and our knowledge of history demand that we stop this escalation of rhetoric.”
Having previously worked in the state department as special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, Rosenthal said she knows the U.S. vetting of refugees and other asylum seekers is comprehensive, often taking 18-24 months. “It’s the gold standard,” she said.
“I fully appreciate that the fears people have are real and appropriate,” she said. But as an individual, she added, “when I weigh the complex parts of this dilemma I side with compassion.”
Professor Nadav Shelef
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Shelef, a professor of modern Israel studies, said he can understand the concern some people might have.
“There’s no way of assessing the risk from Syria relative to any other place. It’s not clear that it’s necessarily any bigger,” Shelef said. “I think from a historical perspective almost the exact same concerns were raised about Jews in the 1930s. And this is not as a political scientist this is just as a Jew.”
“We know that there were Soviet spies embedded among Jewish refugees in the past,” he added.
Distinguishing between Muslims and non-Muslims would give ISIS exactly what they want, he said, because they have a picture of the world that divides the world into us and them.
When asked if we should consider what has at times been a troubled relationship between the Jewish and Muslim worlds, Shelef was quick to oppose such thinking.
“I suspect that American Jews and American Muslims are on the same side on most issues,” he said, offering the separation of church and state as an example. He added that even on Israel, American Jews are not of one mind.
In a nation of 300 million people, 10,000 refugees would be about as good as a rounding error in elections, he said. And in, any case, we can help change any negative attitudes by treating people the way we would like to be treated, he said.
The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle welcomes community conversation on issues of the day. Continue the discussion at Facebook.com/WisconsinJewish, @WiJewish and #WisRefugee.
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· 11 Jewish groups call for Congress to accept refugees
Eleven Jewish groups are among 81 that sent a letter to Congress members urging them not to roll back plans to accept Syrian refugees into the United States. “To turn our back on refugees would be to betray our nation’s core values,” said the letter sent Nov. 17.
Among the Jewish groups signing are the Union for Reform Judaism, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee.
· State senator opposes Syrian refugee immigration
“The disturbing truth is that it can happen here and the chances exponentially increase when we invite a group of people into our state with links to the recent attack in Paris,” state Sen. Frank Lasee, R-De Pere, said in a statement. “The Department of Homeland Security claims there’s an extensive vetting process, but honestly, who do you call in Syria to run a background check on these folks?”
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