They Are Eating The Cats: A Jewish Response to Demonizing Immigrants

The Jewish community came to America during a period when the country had an open immigration policy. When America restricted immigration in 1920, few Jews were allowed to enter; many who remained in Europe were killed during the Holocaust. After the end of the Second World War, some Jews had to use deception to be allowed to enter the country.

The first generation of Jewish immigrants didn’t speak English and worked in menial jobs to survive. There were prominent Jewish criminals and others became radicals. All the stereotypical complaints against immigrants were made against the Jews with the exception that because of the laws of kashrut they were not accused of eating cats and dogs. 

Whatever one’s political orientation, it is incumbent on the Jewish people to speak out against the campaign to demonize immigrants. These men and women are primarily coming from impoverished countries with corrupt governments, and are seeking to improve their lives. The actual crime rate in immigrant communities is lower than that of the general population. 

Three times I accompanied a group of Yeshiva and Stern students as they spent a week between terms in a developing country in Central America. They worked on a meaningful project in a local village. The people we worked with were poor, barely educated, and unaware of the outside world. They were hard-working, friendly, and appreciative of whatever we could contribute. 

There were individuals who had traveled for thousands of miles to enter the United States illegally so they could get a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant; this would pay enough to send a few dollars back to their families — a pittance for us but a substantial sum for them. 

Our students learned that poverty wasn’t a result of laziness, but came from a lack of opportunity and education. We returned to continue pursuing college studies and prospective careers with less certainty of any intrinsic superiority. It was a lesson in the biblical statement that all humans were created in the Divine image. 

America has every right to control its borders and to limit immigration, but this shouldn’t be based on any racial theory that immigrants who come from some countries are inferior. This was the basis for the restrictions against Jews in the past as well as against immigrants from countries where the population wasn’t white Anglo-Saxon. When there is an influx of potential immigrants from a country suffering from a terrible autocratic government or the ravages of a civil war, no one is sending criminals or other undesirables. A Jewish response is to respect human dignity, understand the difficulty of risking all to start a life in a new country, and support others having the opportunities that our ancestors had. Minimally, we should object to any demonizing of people because they are immigrants.

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Photo Caption: The American flag

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons