I would never dare call myself a refugee. Nor would I ever hold up a sign that reads “I am a refugee.” Although, technically, I’m a refugee. That is, I’m an immigrant who had entered the United States thanks to my refugee status. That was what they called it in those days — “Refugee Status.”…
Each Passover, as we gather around Seder tables with glasses of sweet wine and with plates overflowing with charoset, egg and bitter herbs, Jews read the words “Arami oved Avi,” which translates to “My father was a wandering Aramean.” Slavery and liberation are personal; we read the story in the first person: The Exodus happened…
Almost 40 years ago, when my husband and I were newlyweds, I spotted a flier on a bulletin board asking about volunteers to assist Russian Jewish immigrants moving to the Twin Cities. “Let’s do it,” I told my husband. “It’s only a six-month commitment. We’ll be in, we’ll be out, and we’ll get some mitzvah…
Eight refugee families, still in limbo. That is the situation Chicago synagogues are dealing with after having volunteered to sponsor them—about 35 people in all—since President Donald Trump issued his executive order banning citizens of seven Muslim majority countries from entering the United States. Despite a February 3 court order temporarily lifting the ban, and…
This past weekend, my twins were accepted to their top choice for college. Like all the Jewish mothers before me, I kvelled with pride. We celebrated the good news all weekend, yet slowly but surely my naches soon turned to tsoris. My worry wasn’t about making sure they eat well-balanced meals in the college cafeteria,…
NEW YORK (JTA) — Over 100 years ago, Barnett Levine was greeted by the New York skyline and the Statue of Liberty as he arrived in the United States, having fled anti-Semitism and pogroms in his native Poland. Today his grandson saw those very same sights when he joined about 700 others in New York’s…
Let’s try a thought experiment. A blatantly anti-Semitic candidate runs for president. In a CNN interview, he declares that “Judaism hates us.” He falsely accuses American Jews of cheering on terrorist attacks against the United States. He calls for “a total and complete shutdown of Jews entering the United States.” This candidate then wins the…
Nearly 25 years ago I traveled to Poland to participate in the March of the Living, to “study the history of the Holocaust and to examine the roots of prejudice, intolerance and hate,” as the program’s website explains. Our group visited Nazi death camps and Jewish ghost towns, seeking to gain a better understanding of…
אין גרייט־נעק און לאָס־אַנדזשעלעס הייבן איראַנישע ייִדן אָן חלומען וועגן אַ רײַזע אין זייער היימלאַנד.
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