October Newsletter: Let’s Cultivate a Sweet World Together
October 1, 2024 • 28 Elul 5784
TASTE OF HONEY
Wishing you and yours a sweet new year - a Shana Tova U’Metukah and Anyada Buena i Dulse - from the Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice!
Support JCIJ to Build a Sweet World Together
As the sound of the shofar calls us to take action, you can make an impact supporting immigrant justice in the new year! With anti-immigrant rhetoric rising to dangerous heights and ICE activity increasing in our state, we must come together to make this a sweet new year.
Your support:
Enables JCIJ to walk side by side to accompany immigrant community members to high stakes immigration appointments and hearings.
Builds state and federal advocacy, fighting for health equity, unemployment insurance, and support for newly arrived migrants.
Amplifies mutual aid drives for hygiene supplies, homewares, and clothing.
Allows JCIJ to organize free asylum and TPS clinics, which have served over 500 migrants.
Grows Jewish and multifaith community engagement, and more!
EVENTS
Advanced Accompaniment Training - October 27
Those who have participated in a JCIJ Accompaniment Training are invited to join Part 2 to learn Rapid Response techniques in case someone gets detained. With ICE activity escalating in our state, being prepared to document should ICE apprehend the person you’re accompanying can impact the outcome of someone’s case.
We will be doing future accompaniment trainings for new volunteers!
All We Carry Film Screening and Talk Back - November 24
Save the date for our film screening on November 24! We are partnering with Congregation Beth Shalom to present All We Carry, a documentary by Cady Voge showing the extraordinary journey of Magdiel, Mirna, and their young son as they flee Honduras, endure immigrant detention, seek asylum, and make a new home with the support of Seattle’s Jewish community.
Join us to view the film and take part in a talk back while supporting JCIJ’s efforts to advance immigrant justice and create community for newly arrived migrants.
COMMUNITY EVENTS
Understanding Forced Migration - October 4
Join JCIJ at the Church Council of Greater Seattle’s convening of individuals, faith communities, partner organizations, and community leaders to better understand why people are migrating to the U.S. This forum will be grounded in the lived experience of recently arrived migrants with a brief presentation by the Council’s Immigration Organizer. We hope this forum is one of many steps that leads to best practices for supporting newly arriving migrants, including understanding specific conditions for migrants. Event will be interpreted in English.
Book Talk: Immigration is an Indigenous Issue - October 9
Co-authors Mike Wilson and Tony Lucero will discuss their book, What Side Are You On?: A Tohono O’odham Life across Borders, at the UW Simpson Center for the Humanities as part of the Digital Border Technologies & Media project. In this collaborative memoir, Wilson and Lucero examine the lessons that emerge from one Indigenous man’s journey through environmental injustice, military service in Central America, struggles with Christianity, filmmaking, and human rights activism in the US-Mexico borderlands.
Film Screening: “The Long Walk of Carlos Guerrero” - October 10
Accomplished New York City chef and undocumented immigrant Carlos Guerrero risks everything to return to Mexico to see his ailing mother one last time. The Long Walk of Carlos Guerrero (2023) follows his epic journey back, when he and a young migrant girl from El Salvador get stranded in the deserts of Southern Arizona. This screening, presented by the UW Simpson Center as part of the Digital Border Technologies & Media project, will be followed by a Q & A with director Joseph Mathew-Varghese and human rights activist Mike Wilson (Tohono O’odham).
This film is presented in Spanish with English subtitles. Free & open to the public.
Save the Date: WAISN’s Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Day - January 30, 2025
MUTUAL AID
Care Packages for Newly Arrived Migrants
WAISN and JCIJ need your help purchasing supplies for new migrant arrivals to King County. The need for care packages and resources for newly arrived migrants continues to increase. WAISN, with volunteers from JCIJ, delivered 65 care packages in 2023.
Please support this mutual aid effort of urgently needed items. They will be sent directly to WAISN and delivered by JCIJ volunteers. We will add more items to the wishlist as the highest priority needs are met.
ACTION
Take the Jewish Community Public Policy Priorities Survey to shape advocacy by the Federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and ensure support for immigrants and refugees is a top priority! Survey closes on October 14th.
SYNAGOGUE SPOTLIGHT
Congregation Beth Shalom & Temple B’nai Torah hold Mutual Aid Drives to support migrants moving into semi-permanent housing
Many thanks to all at Congregation Beth Shalom and Temple B’nai Torah who donated hygiene products, homewares, and supplies for children and infants! It is powerful to see congregations stepping up to take action to support newly arrived migrants. Thank you for welcoming our immigrant neighbors!
GATHERINGS
Summer Gathering Gratitude!
Thanks to those who celebrated JCIJ’s 2nd annual Summer Gathering at Gas Works Park! It was joyful to see our community of accompaniment volunteers, advocates, people new to JCIJ, and (6!) Rabbis. We are thankful to our partners, the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, Colectiva Legal del Pueblo, The Church Council of Greater Seattle, Faith Action Network, and Riverton Park United Methodist Church, for joining us and for being together in this movement for immigrant justice.
We ate Ashkenazi comfort food, listened to music, and gained clarity about rising ICE activity in our state and the action we need to take depending on and regardless of the election outcome in November.
Special thanks to Rabbi Molly Weisel from Temple B’nai Torah for leading us in a Shehechiyanu and songs and to wonderful musicians Peter Costantini, Lou Truskoff, and Mark Alfs.
Summer Advocacy Retreat: Planning for a meaningful year of advocacy
JCIJ’s Advocacy Committee gathered at the Tubman Center’s Healing House for a Summer Retreat to build community and plan for the upcoming year of advocating and activating multifaith community at the local, state and federal level. Legislative Session begins in January, and upcoming fights include health equity, unemployment insurance for undocumented workers, and support for newly arrived migrants.
JCIJ at WAISN’s 2024 Membership Convening
Executive Director Andrea Soroko Naar and JCIJ accompaniment leader Ellen Kleyman attended WAISN’s Membership Convening in Toppenish, WA in August. Andrea shared about JCIJ’s accompaniment work on a panel entitled "Deportation Defense: We Are Here to Stay" led by Yahaira Padilla, WAISN’s Deportation Defense Coordinator.
It was incredible to be in community and strategize with over 40 organizations from almost every county in Washington state! We left feeling clear about the escalation in ICE activity in our state and how JCIJ can continue to take action to stand together with immigrant community members.
VOLUNTEER
JCIJ supports two free legal clinics!
A Monday afternoon TPS legal clinic from 11:45am - 4pm for Spanish speakers at Riverton Park United Methodist Church. Volunteers who speak Spanish are especially needed, but fluency is not required!. No legal experience required. We have an amazing team of dedicated volunteers (weekly commitment not required). Join us! Email Ellen Kleyman at ellenkley@gmail.com. Volunteer at tinyurl.com/jcijvolunteer.
A monthly day-long Asylum Clinic for past and current residents of Riverton Park United Methodist Church. This clinic is held on weekends. We are seeking immigration lawyers or paralegals; non-immigration lawyers and paralegals; people with an interest in learning about immigration law; and people who have sufficient fluency in Spanish, Lingala, French, Haitian-Creole or Portuguese to serve as interpreters. Volunteer at tinyurl.com/jcijvolunteer.
NEWS
Biden administration reportedly considering keeping temporary asylum restrictions
In June, President Biden’s executive order removed safe haven protections specifically for migrants who enter from Mexico, preventing them from seeking asylum when border crossings regularly exceed 1,500 per day for a full week. Now, the New York Times reports that the Biden administration is considering actions to keep those restrictions in place, even as immigration advocates are taking legal action to lift restrictions that they say violate protected asylum seekers’ rights.
Immigrants vital for job growth–just look at Dayton, Ohio
Federal data shows that immigrants are filling jobs left by retiring workers; without them, job growth would not be able to keep up. As NPR reports, a company in Dayton, Ohio, has already realized this, actively reaching out to immigrant communities to grow their workforce. While Springfield, Ohio, has become embroiled in controversy and anti-immigrant rhetoric, nearby Dayton calls itself an “immigrant friendly city.” Municipal government, business leaders, and residents have spent years luring immigrants to the area with positive results: low employment, multicultural schools and businesses, and occupying houses to keep neighborhoods alive.
Disparate perspectives on immigration from Jews in and about Springfield
Amid Donald Trump and JD Vance’s dissemination of unfounded anti-immigrant rumors about migrants eating pets, the only congregational rabbi in Springfield, Ohio, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Haitian immigrants lack “Western civilized values.” Rabbi Cary Kozberg claims that migrants have “disenfranchised” locals and distances them from the history of Jewish immigration to the U.S. while using references from Jewish texts to support his views.
However, other Jewish leaders and Jews in the area think differently: they call on Jews and rabbis to refute anti-immigrant rhetoric and conspiracy theories and use Jewish values to support immigrant communities. In an op-ed for The Forward, Rabbi Avi Shafran implores American Jews to reflect on our own histories experiencing immigration, antisemitism, and xenophobia and support immigrants, arguing that the spirit of ahavat hager, or loving the convert, extends to anyone who finds themselves in a foreign place.
US election: why immigration remains a major issue for voters and why they trust Trump on border security
US border policy remains a key electoral issue, and this article helps unpack the Harris campaign, Biden, and Trump border policies. Voters seeing immigration as a top issue supposedly favor Trump, who claims he would be tougher on border security. However, the issue is more complex. In public discourse, asylum, border security, crime, and the opioid epidemic have been tangled into one issue.
SONGS IN THE KEY OF JCIJ
Curated by Dina Burstein
Modeh Ani - Joey Weisenberg & the Hadar Ensemble ~ I think I have included this beautiful setting of the Modeh Ani thank you prayer a few years ago in this column. Well, here it is again, a special treat for us to help us through the High Holidays.
She Is On Her Way - Aly Halpert ~ Lyrics and music by Aly Halpert, with these words by Arundhati Roy: She is on her way, on her way Another world’s not only possible On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing (repeat) She’s on her way, on her way. Aly Halpert (she/her) is a queer Jewish musician, educator, and activist living on Lenni Lenape land in Philadelphia, PA, USA. A singer, pianist, drummer, and guitar player, Aly writes songs for building community, working for collective liberation, and visioning different worlds, and leads music and prayer for Jewish community.
Washington Square by Si Kahn from North Carolina, a Jewish civil rights, labor and community organizer and musician. Si sings about the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, which left 146 garment workers dead, and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.
Yahritza Y Su Esencia - No Se Puede Decir Adiós ~ Yahritza Martínez (so young I think she might be still a teenager) from the Yakima Valley sings with her brothers Armando, on 12-string guitar, and Jairo, on bass. Her passionate songs tell caring, beautiful, sad stories of love.
Be in touch with the Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice NW
at team@jewishcoalition.org and learn more at jewishcoalition.org.
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Donate to build Jewish Coalition’s advocacy, accompaniment and community engagement.
Volunteer for or learn more about accompaniment, legal support, observing ICE flights, tutoring, interpreting, crafting JCIJ communications, and supporting immigrant-led partners.