Dear JCOGS family,
Last Friday, I received a text from a dear friend, someone many of you know because she has visited JCOGS multiple times—Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg, Senior Rabbi of Shir Tikvah in Minneapolis. A call was going out to clergy across the nation to show up in Minneapolis in light of the situation there—and she asked me to come, to show up in this terrorizing moment in a city on high alert. When a friend calls, you pick up and answer that call. I write this message to you on a plane to Minneapolis.
For weeks, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal law enforcement agencies have come into specific cities in the U.S. to detain immigrants. What has transpired is a clash between officers and those protesting their actions, and an increase in fear, hostility, and violence that reached a horrific peak in Minneapolis on January 7, when an ICE agent murdered Renee Nicole Macklin Good without apparent cause, consequences, or even a promise of an independent investigation.
I am moved to show up in Minneapolis to be there for my friend and her community who are reeling after weeks of direct confrontation with federal agents. Who by their accounts, live in fear of abuses of power by their own government—fear for their immigrant neighbors and their own safety.
Overwhelmingly, seeing this with their own eyes, the Jewish community in Minneapolis—across political affiliation and religious observance—is showing up for its immigrant neighbours and calling out these abuses. Please read their own poignant words here, signed by the clergy of Minneapolis.
I am moved to show up in Minneapolis because just two months ago on our Southern U.S. Civil Rights Interfaith Trip, we walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama where “Bloody Sunday” showed the nation that legalized brutality was not the right way. Dr. King wrote: “No American is without responsibility… I call therefore, on clergy of all faiths representative of every part of the country, to join me for a ministers’ march to Montgomery... In this way all America will testify to the fact that the struggle in Selma is for the survival of democracy everywhere in our land.” Just as that call was answered, the organizers for Minneapolis have echoed the call of Dr. King for us all to bear witness to what is happening in our nation, and from all accounts thus far, at least 1000 clergy have answered that call and are on their way to Minneapolis. I travel with Rev. Dr. Becca Girrell of the United Community Church in Morrisville and we’ve also met clergy along the way.
Like Dr. King, I am moved to show up with a deep and enduring love in my heart. I come to hold those most directly impacted—immigrants, their neighbours, and my own friends—through nonviolent protest. I also come to Minneapolis with love and prayer for those ICE agents and other law enforcement, who are also deeply in need of our prayers in this moment.
In a jaw-dropping moment where Torah and life intersect, this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Bo, reads:
תּוֹרָה אַחַת יִהְיֶה לָאֶזְרָח וְלַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּתוֹכְכֶם׃
“There shall be one law—for the citizen and for the stranger/foreigner who dwells among you.”
While this verse relates directly to the Passover offering, medieval commentator Rashi states emphatically that this applies to all of the laws, whether you are ger/stranger or native. Our Torah beckons us 36 times—more than any other commandment—to empathize with the immigrant, for we were strangers and oppressed in Egypt. The Torah calls me to show up in Minneapolis, too.
You may receive these words and disagree with some of what is stated here. I thank you, G-d, that people of many walks of life have different opinions. I invite you to come with curiosity. I, too, come to this moment with curiosity, to bear witness, and to see with my own eyes what is happening.
As I have heard from so many JCOGS members, you yourself may be reeling from the news in Minneapolis and these words I share with you act like a balm for the soul. If you are looking for ways to respond, we are being asked to point people to: https://www.iceoutnowmn.com/. On Friday, join the national call to prayer and fasting in support of the march on Minneapolis that same day.
Yes, this is different from a normal day. Yes, the temperature will be frigid. Yes, what we are doing is providing safety in a context where safety is at risk for others. But (to all the Jewish parents and grandparents out there worried about me), yes, I will be as safe as I can be.
I will report back to our community. For now, please keep me, Rev. Becca, and all of us in Minneapolis in your prayers for safety and healing.
B’ahavah rabbah, with abundant love,
Rabbi David
