Muslim, Jewish Leaders Object to Travel Ban in Congressional Meetings
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Muslim and Jewish leaders shared concerns with lawmakers in Congress about President Donald Trump’s recent orders banning entry to refugees.
The lobbying day Wednesday for the Muslim Jewish Advisory Council was planned before November’s election and was meant to focus on expanding hate crimes laws in the United States.
But it was Trump’s executive order, which has created chaos at airports, ports and U.S. embassies around the world, which featured prominently in the group’s summary letter.
“We support the deep concerns with the President’s Executive Order of January 27 on refugee policy expressed by many members of Congress both Republicans and Democrats,” said the statement posted Wednesday as an open letter to Congress. “We are concerned with any bar on refugee or other immigration to the United States based on one’s religion.”
The refugee issue also came up in meetings that the 36 Muslim and Jewish leaders had with lawmakers. Trump banned entry to visitors from seven predominantly Muslim nations for 90 days and suspended entry of refugees for 120 days.
The leaders met with representatives of both parties. Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Orrin Harch, R-Utah, co-hosted a reception for the group.
Otherwise the letter’s focus was on hate crimes, which is the issue that united the leaders when the group, an initiative of the American Jewish Committee, was first convened last year.
“It is imperative that Congress work to strengthen our country’s response to the increase in hate crimes, in particular by exercising its oversight responsibilities so as to ensure that the Justice Department maintains, and heightens, its work with state and local officials on hate crimes, and prosecutes such crimes at the federal level where necessary,” the letter said.
Stanley Bergman, the CEO of Henry Schein, a health care products supplier, and Farooq Kathwari, president and CEO of Ethan Allen, a furniture company, are co-chairs of the council.
Members include Norm Coleman, a former Republican senator from Minnesota; Joseph Lieberman, a former senator from Connecticut who was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000; Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, the executive vice president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly and Daisy Khan and Eboo Patel, Muslim Americans active in interfaith outreach.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
