dispatch from minneapolis

I write to you from frigid South Minneapolis, where it is currently 20 below. (It is so cold outside that as soon as I exited the house, my glasses fogged up. I tried to wipe them clean only to realize it was frost.) 

Rabbi Lizzie and I responded to an emergency call from our dear colleague Rabbi Arielle Lekach Rosenberg of Shir Tikvah and March Minnesota for clergy from around the country to gather to witness and learn about how thousands of people of faith and conscience are disrupting ICE’s efforts to terrorise immigrant communities in Minneapolis. It was one of many invitations that brought 1000+ clergy in advance of a statewide strike and day of action today. 

Our day began with an early morning pilgrimage to two memorials mere blocks from where I was staying. We drove to George Floyd Square, z”l. A small group of neighbors were gathered around a fire, offering each other warm quiche, fresh baked cookies, hot coffee and instant oatmeal. There is a gathering every morning at 8 am. The once gas station is now hollowed ground. 

We then drove a few blocks to the memorial site where Renee Good was murdered on January 7. There we found more neighbors gathered around another fire on the icy street, frozen flowers piled high. 

After saying a silent kaddish we got back in the car and tuned into the ICE watch call. There was a lot of activity and we quickly heard that an abduction was underway, just a block away. Two ICE agents stopped a car, pulled two people from it and abandoned the car. Neighbors called for help, parked the car, gathered wallets and names. The whole scene conjured Gestapo, slave-catcher dystopia. And also neighbors becoming the Jedi resistance. I have only ever witnessed military occupation like this in two places: the Sonoran desert and the West Bank. The terror, the uncertainty, disregard for constitutional laws, however imperfect.

And throughout it all, I just kept returning to a verse from this week’s Torah portion, Bo. Exodus 12:49 reads, 
תּוֹרָה אַחַת יִהְיֶה לָאֶזְרָח וְלַגֵּר הַגָּר בְּתוֹכְכֶם׃

“One Instruction shall there be for the native and for the sojourner who sojourns in your midst!”

The Torah doesn’t get everything right, and yet it stakes its moral credibility on this teaching. On the idea that everyone who lives in a place should be treated equally, under one law. Even thousands of years ago, it was understood that immigrants were vulnerable and the Torah emphasizes that our responsibility is to care for those most vulnerable, which was then defined as immigrants, orphans and widows. This teaching is so powerful it's repeated almost verbatim in Numbers 15:16. 

What I witnessed in Minneapolis was sobering. The actions of this administration are an affront to Torah and a threat to all of us. There is no way to know how many people have been snatched by ICE, where they have been taken, when they will return, if ever. Our government is occupying one of its own cities and disappearing people. 

The tactics are not new, but neither is the call to resist. When the gathering started on Thursday, one speaker looked out and asked, “How many people were with us at Ferguson? At Standing Rock? At Selma? Hands were up. It was humbling and inspiring. There is a long legacy of civil resistance and so much to learn. (One book I plan to read is Civil Resistance: What everyone needs to know by Erica Chenowith.)

One local Jewish Lakota leader shared this wisdom, 

“The most effective thing that we’ve seen is neighbors. It’s nobody else’s responsibility but yours to confront ICE and stop them. You don’t have to do this alone. But you are not free to leave the situation. I’m just a very ordinary person who’s in a very ordinary circumstance. When they ask, “What did you do when they were going after your neighbors?” I’m going to say I did what I can.” 

What is most surprising is how hopeful I feel. We as a community know how to be good neighbors. How to love justice and embody chesed. We have block captains and block parties, and we can use that to build block watches. Everybody knows how to neighbor. This is what Torah is asking of us, and what this moment requires. We can decide today to protect our neighbors. ​