Philip Roth, Stephen Sondheim Join Writers Exhorting Trump To Reconsider Immigration Ban
Image by NICHOLAS KAMM/Getty Images
By Talya Zax February 21, 2017
Philip Roth, Stephen Sondheim, Art Spiegelman and a number of other Jewish luminaries have lent their names to an open letter beseeching President Trump to reconsider restricting entry to the country for refugees from around the world and immigrants from a group of Muslim-majority countries.
The letter, signed by 65 writers and artists and written by PEN America, calls on Trump “to rescind your Executive Order of January 27, 2017, and refrain from introducing any alternative measure that similarly impairs freedom of movement and the global exchange of arts and ideas.”
Published on February 21, it arrived on the heels of news that Trump’s administration would soon introduce an executive order intended to replace that of January 27. The new order is expected to have been engineered to better survive legal challenges than its predecessor, which has been blocked by a number of federal judges.
The letter’s signatories also included Paul Auster, Ayelet Waldman, Michael Chabon, Robert Pinsky, Nicole Krauss, Jules Feiffer, and Francine Prose. They were joined by Zadie Smith, Sandra Cisneros, Margaret Atwood, Colm Toibin, Khaled Hosseini and Chimamanda Adichie, among many others.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
