Immigration and evil

On the day before I was born, on September 20, 1939, the Red Army invaded the poor shtetl of Anatol in what is now Belarus. Jews had lived in the village since the middle of the 17th century. Their primitive homes typically had thatched roofs, dirt floors, and no plumbing. The community’s remaining sojourn in the town was to be very limited. Those who had survived historic periodic massacres would be completely liquidated by the Nazis in 1942.

Many of the Jews had fled years earlier, when the village was beset by an increase in pogroms from 1903 to 1906. Among those families was that of Stephen Miller, whose paternal grandfather arrived in Ellis Island on January 7, 1903.

In a much-loved Bible story, young Joseph became a trusted advisor to Pharoah. His position was second in power only to Pharaoh himself.

In the contemporary story of another rise to power, young Stephen Miller, still in his 30s, became a trusted advisor to Donald Trump, and the pair of them devised methods of subjugating those whom they consider undesirable in our land, especially those they call illegals.

Joseph was Jewish. So is Stephen. There the similarities end.

Stephen, like his mentor Trump, is a grandchild of poor and powerless immigrants. Trump’s paternal grandfather, Friedrich Trump, came from Germany and became an affluent operator of hotels that also served as restaurants and brothels. His would-be return to Germany was thwarted when its government threatened to arrest him as a draft dodger. Perhaps he was the inspiration for his grandson Donald, who also evaded the draft while living a lawless life.

Stephen’s family fulfilled the American dream. They settled in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where they rose from poverty-stricken refugees to wealthy Americans, from rag sellers to prominent department store owners. According to a book written by his maternal grandmother, the family survived only because they emigrated to America. However, with ingratitude for America’s kindness to his family, Stephen embarked on a vicious and heartless campaign to brutalize present-day immigrants escaping the cruelty of their own homelands. That campaign continues with ever increasing hostility until this very moment.

It was the bard who said, “The evil that men do lives after them.” But it is highly unlikely that most members of the Trump government read Shakespeare. Stephen Miller, a Duke graduate, epitomizes their overt sense of self-righteousness, hubris, and lack of concern for their legacies.

What would Stephen have proposed for the teeming Jewish masses, more than 900 of them, aboard the German ship Saint Louis, which was fleeing 1939 Europe en route to Cuba, where arrangements had been made for their safe landing? On arrival, the Cuban government refused to honor their agreement to allow the Jews to disembark. The benevolent German captain decided to continue on to the United States, where, hopefully, his passengers would have been welcome. That proved not to be the case. The American government claimed already to have met its Jewish quota. The passengers were sent back to Europe, where approximately 255 were murdered during the Holocaust. Those people could have been our friends or families. They could have discovered cures for disease or added light to the world in infinite ways. Instead, they were killed in concentration camps. America, our big, broad, wide-open country, had no room available for them. Stephen Miller would certainly have been supportive of this strict adherence to the quota system.

Trump’s drive to eliminate the so-called illegals is eagerly championed by Stephen. Trump is not of native American or Mayflower stock. The two of them and their immoral followers continue to aspire to denigrate those seeking better lives in this nation. They lack compassion. They lack menschlichkeit.

Statistically the facts overrule the Miller and Trump premise that the immigrants entering our country today are criminals and rapists. It has been found that they are usually escaping threats to their lives in their home countries and their crime rate in this country is far below that of American born citizens. Punitive measures to arrest them include entrapment, lack of habeas corpus, and illegal eviction by stealth to cruel prisons in foreign lands.

These immigrants come here mostly to build new lives. Many have families, including children. Their search for an improved standard of living mirrors our own family members, who came from abroad in pursuit of freedom and the pursuit of happiness. How can we possibly forget the stories of our own roots and be intolerant of those whose aspirations are no less deserving than ours?

Not one of us has an easy fix to the problem of illegal immigrants. Trump’s own solution, when it suited him, was often to give them jobs at Mar-a-Lago and his other properties. They worked for less than their citizen counterparts. Today, these immigrants, in desperation, arrive to perform jobs that other Americans will not do.

Neither you nor I have an optimal solution to integrating these newcomers into our country. But we are Jews and the barbaric treatment of our fellow human beings by serial abusers like Miller and Trump must not stand. If we Jews don’t speak up, who will? We have been the victims of human rights abuses. Our people, often including members of our own families, have been locked into concentration camps, where they have been mercilessly and methodically slaughtered. Today, as we observe our government’s pride in placing other human beings in brutal inhumane facilities like Alligator Alcatratz, a place where intolerable conditions prevail, it’s incumbent upon us as Jews to speak up and condemn such overt criminality. Miller and Trump must finally be challenged by our own Jewish voices of human dignity.

“You shall not deliver unto his master an enslaved person that has escaped from his master unto you. He shall dwell with you, in your midst, in the place that he shall choose within one of your gates that seems good to him; you shall not mistreat him.” Deuteronomy 23:16-17

Rosanne Skopp of West Orange is a wife, mother of four, grandmother of 14, and great-grandmother of nine. She is a graduate of Rutgers University and a dual citizen of the United States and Israel. She is a lifelong blogger, writing blogs before anyone knew what a blog was! She welcomes email at rosanne.skopp@gmail.com