Jewish Community Action’s
Progress by Pesach
The Jewish Call for Immigration Reform, Not Raids
“When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord and your God.” Leviticus 19:33-34
Jewish Community Action and our partners across the country invite you to join us in our Progress by Pesach (Hebrew for Passover) campaign. Our goal is simple: an end to immigration raids by Passover.
For Jews, Passover is a time when we celebrate our freedom from bondage, remember when we were strangers in a strange land, and connect our history to modern-day liberation struggles. This is the inspiration behind the campaign name, Progress by Pesach.
Jewish Community Action is echoing the call from local and national immigrant-led and immigrant rights groups to end raids. We are speaking up as Jews, alongside immigrant communities. We know that we can only make change together.
This year, Passover coincides with the end of the Obama Administration’s First 100 Days. We call upon President-elect Obama to issue an executive order ending immigration raids immediately. Ending raids by Passover would demonstrate that real progress has been made toward the long-term goal of fair, humane, comprehensive federal immigration reform and is an important part of supporting immigrants and communities.
Jewish Community Action and our partners will help make this a priority for the Obama Administration by flooding his staff and our Congressional representatives with constituent requests for an end to raids via phone calls, petitions, letters and media.
Our partners include: Local/Regional groups: Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (Chicago), Jews United For Justice (D.C.), Progressive Jewish Alliance (L.A./San Francisco), Jews For Racial and Economic Justice (NY), Jewish Community Relations Council of Southern Arizona, National Groups: the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, National Council of Jewish Women, Union for Reform Judaism,
We will mobilize support by hosting educational programs and events, volunteer opportunities, and outreach within the Jewish community.
Want to help?
- Attend or host a program or workshop at your congregation (we’ll help you!)
- Participate in an evening or two of phone banking
- Deliver a D’var at your shul
- Help us collect petition signatures
- Help with research and development of educational materials
- Attend JCA’s Annual Immigrant Right’s Freedom Seder on March 22nd
- Follow our blog (www.progressbypesach.blogspot.com - contact lauren if you are interested in posting) and take action on local and national immigration policy (www.hias.org/progress)
For more information or to get involved: Vic Rosenthal (vic@jewishcommunityaction.org),
Lauren Bastien (lauren@jewishcommunityaction.org), 651.632.2184,
www.jewishcommunityaction.org, www.progressbypesach.blogspot.com, www.hias.org/progress
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