More than 1,000 Rabbis call on United States to welcome refugees

'As Rabbis, we take seriously the biblical mandate to welcome the stranger’

The Jewish leaders are urging elected officials in the US to welcome refugees such as those fleeing war in Syria (ACHILLEAS ZAVALLIS/AFP/Getty Images)

More than 1,000 Rabbis have called on elected officials in the United States to welcome refugees.

The Jewish leaders signed a letter, organised by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), and delivered one to each member of the Congress on Wednesday.

It read: “Since its founding, the United States has offered refuge and protection to the world’s most vulnerable."

“Time and time again, those refugees were Jews. Whether they were fleeing pogroms in Tzarist Russia, the horrors of the Holocaust or persecution in Soviet Russia or Iran, our relatives and friends found safety on these shores. We are therefore alarmed to see so many politicians declaring their opposition to welcoming refugees.”

“Last month’s heartbreaking attacks in Paris and Beirut are being cited as reasons to deny entry to people who are themselves victims of terror. And in those comments, we, as Jewish leaders, see one of the darker moments of our history repeating itself.”

They urged “elected officials to support refugee resettlement”.

“As Rabbis, we take seriously the biblical mandate to ‘welcome the stranger’. We call on our elected officials to uphold the great legacy of a country that welcomes refugees.”

On November 19, the House of Representatives approved Republican-backed legislation which sought to make the screening procedures for refugees from Syria and Iraq entering the US tougher.

The bill requires the secretary of homeland security, the FBI director and the director of national intelligence to all verify that a refugee is not a threat to national security before admitting them into the country.

It also seeks to suspend White House plans to welcome 10,000 refugees from Syria over the following year. It is unknown how the bill will fair in Senate.

Mark Hetfield, HIAS CEO and President, said in a statement: “Some US politicians are threatening to close our doors to refugees. This is a false solution to a real problem, conflating terror with those who flee it. By fostering intolerance, such words and deeds play right into the hands of our enemies and waken our national character.”

Additional reporting by Reuters