Jews from across the Nation Mobilize for Immigration Reform
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
By: Jonathan Lehrer

Massive Washington Rally and National Jewish Teleconference Call Planned for March 21-22

This event has concluded. Listen to a recording of the conference call here:

March 17, 2010 -- Just days before Passover, the Jewish holiday of freedom, leaders from all Jewish denominations will be converging on Washington, D.C. to rally on the National Mall in support of comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Immediately following the rally, a national Jewish conference call on immigration reform will take place to energize and engage those across the country unable to attend the two days of high intensity immigration advocacy in the nation’s capital.

Participation of Jewish leaders and their communities across the country in the rally and other events have been coordinated by We Were Strangers, Too: The National Jewish Campaign for Immigration Reform, a coalition of Jewish organizations in favor of more compassionate and fair immigration laws. Thousands of Jews are expected to attend from communities as far away as Chicago and Los Angeles.

According to Gideon Aronoff, president and CEO of HIAS, the international migration agency of the American Jewish community: “Each Passover, we are commanded to recall and relive our passage out of Egypt, where we were once strangers. Now is the time for us to express our strength and resolve as a Jewish community – and as members of the larger faith community – to once and for all fix our broken immigration system so that those strangers among us are treated fairly and compassionately.”

The two-day advocacy event will kick off on Sunday, March 21 at 2:00 p.m. (EDT) when some 100,000 people from faith-based communities across the U.S. are expected to take part in March for America: Change Takes Courage and Faith. 

Later the same day, at 6 p.m. (EDT) members of the Jewish community from across the US who could not make the trip to D.C. will take part in the National Jewish Conference Call on Immigration Reform. Participants will hear from speakers representing the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movements of American Judaism.

On Monday, March 22, members of the We Were Strangers, Too campaign will spend the day meeting with their members of congress to gather more support for the passage of immigration legislation.

“This is a crucial moment in the debate on immigration reform. Forcing millions of undocumented residents in our country to remain in the shadows must end,” said Jane Ramsey, executive director of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs.

Information about the Washington, D.C. rally can be found online at www.changetakesfaith.org.

Speakers on the conference call are expected to include Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D.-Ill.), Cecilia Muñoz, director of intergovernmental affairs at the White House, Rabbi David Saperstein (Reform), Rabbi Morris Allen (Conservative) and Rabbi Menachem Genack (Orthodox). Other speakers include Gideon Aronoff, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society; Rabbi Steve Gutow, Jewish Council on Public Affairs; Dalit Ballen Horn, American Jewish Committee; and Jane Ramsey, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs.

Participation in the national Jewish conference call is open to anyone who registers at www.jcua.org/immigrationcall.

According to Rabbi David Saperstein, executive director of the Religious Action Center, “The words of Leviticus, imploring us to welcome the stranger, ring in our ears and call us to action. It is long past time to fix our broken immigration system through comprehensive reform that reflects the moral, economic, social and national security realities of the 21st century. We call on our nation to live up to its highest ideals and embrace its past, present and future as a nation founded and strengthened by immigrants.”

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Jewish Community Action (St. Paul, Minn.), and the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (Chicago) are the co-conveners of We Were Strangers Too: The Jewish Campaign for Immigration Reform.

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