Ma Hadash Blog from CSH

Note: this blog post is adapted from a drash Rabbi Michael gave in February.

Recently, I was privileged to join our Shir Hadash Teens for the inaugural travel journey of our experiential and immersive Jewish teen education program.

Camille Panish, Noah Siegel, Quinn Hathaway, and Ben Laponis joined me as we traveled to the Arizona/Mexico border to learn about immigration in America, from a starting point not of politics but of our Jewish tradition. What timing. What seven months ago had been planned as an interesting trip about the idea of the ger, the foreigner or refugee in Jewish tradition, has never been more pertinent.

Immigration as an issue dominates political discussion today. This is nothing new: immigration has dominated political discussion in the past. And we might make the mistake of thinking that this is a similar moment. But in fact, our experience together showed us that our moment is entirely unprecedented.

What made this trip and this learning experience interesting is not that we had the opportunity to see ‘Jewish Values’ in action. The students who went on the trip had a firm grasp on Jewish values. What made this experience and this trip interesting is the fact that we saw Jewish values (and American ones) in tension with each other.

Together, we spoke about the value dina d’malchuta dina - the Jewish law that states, “the law of the land is the law” and forbids a Jew from violating the local law. We struggled with the tension of addressing that in the face of the idea of mesirah, the Jewish law that (in modern interpretation) forbids a Jew from turning an innocent person over to the authorities. And we asked ourselves: how do we have empathy for the ger in our midst, while dealing with the very real difficulties of welcoming in people from thousands of miles away?

I will try to share what we saw and explored together:

• We spoke with border patrol agents. We met a refugee from Columbia, who left her family’s restaurant business over demands from organized crime she could not meet, and fled with her husband and young child for thousands of miles.
• We sat down to speak with a person whose family fled a murder spree in his home town and grew up since he was a toddler in America, never knowing another country - only to find out he could not go to college or work here.
• We spoke to lawyers who work on all the complicated aspects of the immigration system.
• We walked in the Sonoran desert, on oceans of sand beneath oceans of sky, leaving water and tinned food for anyone who may come across it and need it.
• And we saw political opposites, on both sides of the spectrum, coming together, to help the people imperiled and dying in their backyards. Red and blue politically, from all different backgrounds, they came together to help with food, clothing, and water. They didn’t agree about a single policy, but they agreed on this.

Yeah, we saw a lot.

Additionally, we saw one extremely interesting thing I’d like to mention here. We saw so many people, motivated by religion. We saw churches that had become shelters. We saw ranchers giving water because they felt it was their human AND religious duty. When we went to leave water in the desert, of the four locals who did a volunteer rescue and aid in the desert, two happened to be Jewish.

Just as I hoped, the students and I walked away from this trip with more questions than answers. Jewish tradition has a great ability to help make us more at home dealing with uncertainty - and it is clear that in America today, the fate of the ger in our midst is surrounded by uncertainty.

Together, the teens and I explored one of the most difficult political issues in America from a Jewish perspective, and walked away changed by the experience. I’m already excited for next year’s journey! Interested teens and families are invited to reach out to me to be part of planning and experiencing next year’s impactful teen travel program rooted in Jewish values!