By Melissa Rothstein
Tisha B’Av is the most somber day on the Jewish calendar. It commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, the forced exile of the Jewish people from their homeland, and a litany of other historical catastrophes.
On Tisha B’Av, we mourn every tragedy, displacement and act of violence committed against the Jewish people throughout history. It teaches us that grief connects us over the generations and across different peoples.
On this year’s observance of Tisha B’Av, which begins at sundown on Wednesday, July 22, Jews in the Baltimore area will come together to mourn and highlight the parallels between the calamities our ancestors faced and the injustices immigrants face today.
As Jews, it is incumbent on us to help protect and support our immigrant neighbors. The most-repeated mitzvah in the Torah is the commandment that we welcome the stranger. Our sacred texts and cultural identity insist that we turn our historical experiences of being outsiders in foreign lands into compassion for those experiencing the same today.
Federal immigration policy and practice increasingly subject individuals and families to banishment and persecution. These actions are neither hypothetical nor distant. Kilmar Abrego Garcia — whose mistaken deportation and the retaliation he has endured received national attention — is a resident of Prince George’s County.
In Southeast Baltimore this past month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials violently detained a mother and father in front of their children as they dropped them off at school, disregarding laws that recognize schools as a safe haven from immigration enforcement.
Earlier this year, due to the organizing of many groups like We Are CASA and Jews United for Justice, the Maryland General Assembly enacted significant legislation to minimize the local harm caused by current federal policy, including prohibitions on 287(g) agreements, the Community Trust Act, and the Data Privacy Act.
These bills ended the deputization of local law enforcement to serve as immigration agents and limited the extent to which local law enforcement can collaborate on civil immigration enforcement and share personal information with federal immigration officials. Nine Maryland counties had previously entered 287(g) agreements with the Department of Homeland Security.
Instead of 287(g) agreements, Maryland immigrants should be treated with compassion and respect. This looks like financial assistance for families facing deportation, accompanying individuals to court or mandatory check-ins with ICE, advocating for additional protections, and — as many of us are doing on Tisha B’Av’s commemoration of similar tragedies — bearing witness to the violations that occur in our community.
We cannot mourn exile on Tisha B’Av while turning away from the displaced people of our own time. All people, no matter where they were born or what language they speak, should be able to live without fear. On this Tisha B’Av, may we ensure that those of us who were not born in our community are as safe as those of us who were.
Please join Jews United for Justice and many co-sponsoring synagogues on Thursday, July 23, at 5:30 p.m. for “ICE Out of Maryland: Tisha B’Av Afternoon Regeneration,” a Tisha B’Av mincha service at the ICE Field Office in Downtown Baltimore.
Melissa Rothstein is a civil rights advocate in Baltimore City and represents Hinenu Baltimore in the Synagogue Social Justice Roundtable, convened by Jews United for Justice.
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