Jewish Geography
waited for sometimes decades in refugee camps, that their rel- atives won’t be coming.” As Trump’s campaign vows come to life, Jewish immi- grant-rights groups from the centre to the far left are dusting off their playbooks from eight years ago, when Trump first be- came president. But they are doing so in a changed climate, up against not only a more or- ganized administration, but also communal reorientation spurred by the Israel-Hamas war and, some say, a general sense of liberal exhaustion. National public opinion has also turned against immigration: a Gallup poll from last June shows most Americans want fewer immi- grants entering the country. Advocates such as Jessica Schaffer, director of the Jew- ish Council on Urban Affairs, a Chicago Jewish organization focused on a range of issues in- cluding immigration, are confi- dent that the Jewish connection to immigration rights remains strong. “We are a community that has experienced the immi- gration process,” she says. “We understand the mandate to wel- come the stranger is an import- ant one.” JCFS Chicago CEO Stacey Shor agrees, pointing to oft-cited Jewish values like tikun olam , or repairing the world, and welcoming the stranger. In January, the Reform and Conservative movements signed onto an open letter push- ing back against Trump’s immi- gration policies, including a di- rective permitting immigration officers to conduct raids in hous- es of worship. Some synagogues, like churches, sheltered undocu-
mented migrants during the first Trump years. A few rabbis have also become outspoken immi- gration advocates. But the giant in the Jew- ish immigration-aid space, HIAS, is entering the second Trump administration in a di- minished state owing to recent staff cuts, and Hetfield says the Israel-Hamas war has made it harder to galvanize Jewish sup- port for immigration — both because responding to the cri- sis has been demanding, and be- cause it has accelerated politi- cal shifts within Jewish commu- nities. “We need to make sure American Jews remember that if Trump were president when their parents or grandparents came here,” Hetfield says, “they wouldn’t be here, period.” At the same time, the al- liances between Jewish and Muslim groups that solidified in the wake of Trump’s “Mus- lim ban” in his first administra- tion have frayed today because of the war. But there are signs that such coalitions can be re- newed. At B’nai Emunah in Tul- sa, Kaiman is heavily reliant on local Muslim groups in resettle- ment work. They all help each other, he says, in a relationship that has continued unabated since October 7. “A Syrian refu- gee who spent years in a Jorda- nian refugee camp, then moves to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and comes to a synagogue for their refugee resettlement, for their cultural orientation to what it means to be an American,” Kaiman says. “And you know how much of a problem they have with meeting me at the front door in a kippah? It’s zero.” JTA
HERITAGE PRESERVING THE RELICS OF SYRIA’S JEWISH COMMUNITY by SHIRA LI BARTOV
THE FALL OF Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has opened up a sea of uncertainty about Syr- ia’s future — and about the trea- sures of its past, including the remnants of its Jewish history. A 13-year civil war cost the country more than 600,000 lives and saw some 100,000 people “forcibly disappeared” into pris- ons. The war also wreaked havoc on Syria’s most important cul- tural sites, from ancient monu- ments, castles, and mosques to the vestiges of a rich Jewish cul- ture. Well before the war, Syria’s historical synagogues and oth- er Jewish sites languished in ne- glect after Jews left the country en masse during Israel’s estab- lishment. Now, archaeologists are beginning to assess how much more was lost to bombard- ment and wartime looting.
The Central Synagogue of Aleppo in January 2016.
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