Mijente and Jewish Voice for Peace are jointly organizing this open letter from Latinx Jews. If you are a Latinx Jew who would like to sign on to our letter, please do so on this form.
Below is the text of the letter. Click here to see the current signatories and their stories, and a note from the Organizer, Ari Belathar-Kulikovsky.
Haga clic aquí para ver la versión en español.
Clique aqui para ver a versão em português.
OPEN LETTER BY LATINX JEWS: WE KNOW THIS MOMENT IN HISTORY, AND WE WILL NOT STAY SILENT
We are Latinx Jews, and we will not be silent as our people are harmed and our histories repeated in the U.S. government’s inhumane detention camps.
We are heartbroken and enraged by the immoral, illegal detention of our community, children and adults alike, by the abhorrent conditions of these camps, and by the Trump administration’s racist disregard for human rights and dignity. We are dismayed at the lack of real action by our elected officials.
As Latinx Jews, we are the proud children and grandchildren of immigrants, migrants and refugees. Many of us lost family in the Holocaust, and have suffered antisemitic attacks. Many of us have undocumented family members, our families sundered and separated by borders. Many of us are ourselves refugees, or migrants, or undocumented.
We are observant Jews, and we are secular, and we are somewhere in between. We are many genders and sexualities and ethnicities – and a range of citizenships and immigration statuses. We see ourselves reflected in struggles for freedom and justice across the world, from Mexico to Palestine. And we are united in our determination to end the atrocities committed against our people, our families, our children, our loved ones.
We are particularly heartbroken to see our children detained in detention camps reminiscent of the stories our parents and grandparents told us of the Nazi concentration camps.
We demand the immediate liberation of all migrants and asylum seekers. We demand the abolition of ICE and to the profiteering of private sector corporations incarcerating entire communities. We demand the decriminalization of migration. We demand that all children in the US, Palestine, Israel and everywhere are granted the right of a joyful and safe childhood.
Childhood should not be treated as a privilege for those born in the “right” social and geopolitical locations. The criminalization of migrant, refugee, Palestinian, Black and Indigenous children must end immediately. No kids in cages, from the US/Mexico border to Palestine!
At this moment, we stand at the crossroads of our history, and we will not be silent as our tragedies are repeated. Close the camps. Let our people go.
Sign here if you are a Latinx Jew who would like to add your name, and please share widely!