Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

40 Rabbis Plan Shavuot Vigil for Detained Africans

More than 40 rabbis from all streams of Judaism will hold a prayer vigil and pre-Shavuot study session at the Holot detention center for African immigrants.

The program, organized by leaders in Rabbis for Human Rights, and supported by the New Israel Fund, was scheduled for Wednesday outside the open-detention facility in the Negev Desert.

The event was scheduled, according to organizers, “to mark Shavuot, our turning point from freed slaves to a nation in covenant with God, by demanding that Israel honor our most commanded mitzvah,” citing Leviticus 19:33-34 which calls on Jews to love the stranger.

The date also was chosen because 12 of the detainees are facing immediate deportation, according to Haaretz.

Rabbi Nava Hefetz, educational director of Rabbis for Human Rights, and Rabbi Susan Silverman, planned the vigil.

”God repeated the commandment to protect the stranger at least thirty-six times because it’s a really hard thing to do. Now that we are in our own land, it is something that takes real faith in God, and embracing discomfort — in a way that keeping kosher or Shabbat does not. But it is the real test of the Jewish soul. In that way, the refugees hold up a mirror to our inner character. And they give us an opportunity to rise to our highest selves,” the organizers wrote in promoting the event.

Some 42,000 Eritrean and Sudanese citizens are living in Israel, with 2,000 in the Holot detention facility, where residents are required to check in twice a day. Many have made their home in south Tel Aviv.

Israel has granted official refugee status to just four of more than 5,500 official asylum seekers.

Over 9,000 African migrants have left Israel in the last two years in voluntary departures, according to Haaretz. The Israeli government provided them with airplane tickets and grants.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.