Reckoning for Refugees
Friday April 8, 2022 – ז׳ נִיסָן תשפ״ב
When you tell the story of your family to your children, or even to guests coming to your home, where do you begin?
We Jews choose this moment to tell our story – the story at the heart of the Haggadah – the Jewish people’s exodus from slavery in Egypt. During the retelling of this story, we say the words, “אֲרַמִּי אֹבֵד אָבִי” (Arami oved avi). This phrase is often translated as “My father was a wandering Aramean,” and other times as “An Aramean sought to destroy my father.” Somewhere between the two translations lies the essence of the Jewish experience: we were a rootless people who fled persecution time and time again.
We are refugees descended from refugees; and on Pesach, we tell the story of how we as refugees sought a safe haven and a chance to reinvent as a free people in our Land.
There have never been more displaced people in the world than there are today. In 2021, more than 84 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations. That was an increase of 1.6 million people from the previous year, and the world’s forcibly displaced population remains at a record high. This includes:
- 6 million refugees in the world—the highest ever;
- 9 million internally displaced people; and
- 4 million asylum-seekers.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there have been more than 4.2 million refugees who left Ukraine (as of 4 April 2022), while an estimated 6.5 million people have been displaced within the country.
Since the fighting broke out between Ukraine and Russia, it became clear that thousands of Ukrainian Jews – and their family members – would be seeking refuge in Israel. This influx of refugees, many of whom are eligible for citizenship under the Law of Return, awoke the old debate about what Israel should do. The question was whether Israel should open its borders wide for the Ukrainian masses looking for shelter and a new home?
For some of us, this is a no-brainer. Yet, naysayers wondered where all these people would live, how Israel could absorb so many people so quickly, and whether it was safe to allow so many unknown people into the country?
The naysayers quickly lost their debate as the majority recognized that the Jewish State was, in fact, created to shelter fleeing Jews. Israel as a place of refuge for fleeing Jews is firmly established in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, its laws, and the very character of the State. More importantly, opening its borders to fleeing Jews is a fundamental value of Zionism. Accepting fleeing Jews was relatively uncontroversial. Those who came by virtue of their being Jewish, having at least one Jewish parent or grandparent, or having a Jewish spouse, automatically qualified for Israeli citizenship upon landing at Ben-Gurion Airport. For those that made it in, it was certainly no cakewalk (as Rabbi Eric Yoffie outlines here). The real issue came with the influx of non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees fleeing violence.
They were not as fortunate.
Of the more than 20,000 Ukrainians who have arrived in Israel since the war began last month, nearly 11,000 do not meet the citizenship threshold. Even though most have relatives or friends in Israel, they are considered refugees, not immigrants, and therefore subject to stricter rules.
This influx has ignited an emotional debate over what it means to be a Jewish state, pitting the national imperative to maintain Israel’s Jewish majority against the imperative to maintain Israel’s Jewish character and values that demand caring for those in need.
For instance, the firebrand right-wing lawmaker MK Betzalel Smotrich argued that this will “flood the country with gentiles,” while Labor Party Minister of Diaspora Affairs Nachman Shai emphatically argued that this moment calls for us to focus on “the values of the State of Israel because without them this is not a Jewish state.”
He is not alone. Nahman Syrkin (1868-1924), a Hebrew writer and one of the founders of Labor Zionism, wrote:
“The Jews were historically the nation which caused division and strife, it will now become the most revolutionary of all nations. From the humblest and most oppressed of all peoples, it will be transformed into the proudest and greatest. The Jews will derive their moral stature from their travail and out of the pain of their existence will come to a pattern of noble living. The Jew is small, ugly, servile, and debased when he forgets and denies his character. He becomes distinguished and beautiful in the moral and social realms when he returns to his true nature.”
But – is there a limit? And are Ukrainian refugees different from, say, Eritrean refugees fleeing oppression and persecution? While most Ukrainian refugees were processed and given refugee status almost immediately, we know of tens of thousands of cases of those fleeing from Eritrea and Sudan who were not afforded the opportunity to go through a Refugee Status Determination process. While they were not sent back to their countries (because Israeli officials were aware that that would be an almost certain death sentence), they were also not given status, and many were contained in detention centers in the desert.
The prophet Isaiah forewarned such a situation. In chapter 21 he offers a direct and poignant framing for how we should act towards those seeking refuge:
לִקְרַ֥את צָמֵ֖א הֵתָ֣יוּ מָ֑יִם יֹשְׁבֵי֙ אֶ֣רֶץ תֵּימָ֔א בְּלַחְמ֖וֹ קִדְּמ֥וּ נֹדֵֽד׃ (טו) כִּֽי־מִפְּנֵ֥י חֲרָב֖וֹת נָדָ֑דוּ מִפְּנֵ֣י ׀ חֶ֣רֶב נְטוּשָׁ֗ה וּמִפְּנֵי֙ קֶ֣שֶׁת דְּרוּכָ֔ה וּמִפְּנֵ֖י כֹּ֥בֶד מִלְחָמָֽה׃ (ישעיהו כ״א:י״ד-ט״ו)
“Meet the thirsty with water, You who dwell in the land of Tema; greet the fugitive with bread. For they have fled before swords: before the whetted sword, before the bow that was drawn, before the stress of war.”(Isaiah 21:14-15)
Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz echoes the call of Isaiah. In a recent op-ed this week, Horowitz calls out all those who oppose fair treatment for Ukrainian refugees:
“Even if we were not a country founded by and for refugees, we would still have a moral obligation to extend a helping hand to those fleeing war. Unfortunately, there are some who are placing shameful obstacles before the few who are already knocking at our gates after escaping the Russian war machine but simply were not born into the right religion.
One can only imagine the heartbreak, distress, and difficulties of adjustment of people who do not speak the language here, who have left all their lives and property behind, and in some cases family as well. There is one issue that we must respond to immediately: the physical and mental health of those who have arrived in Israel. Simply put: The State of Israel must provide medical insurance to every refugee – parents, children, and the elderly. That is not a gift or a “favor.” It is a basic, unconditional human right.”
It is not enough just to let refugees in. We must provide them with the ability for a life with dignity. As a result of war, refugees are also weaponized as they deplete the resources of neighboring countries. However, as Minister Horowitz argues, the cost of not providing care in time will only grow in terms of health as well as morally and even financially. This is neither just nor wise.
Ukrainian refugees are not a demographic time bomb threatening Israel’s Jewish fabric. The only thing threatening the Jewish character of the State is the failure to act. We must provide what we can and reject no one – certainly not war refugees whose world has collapsed around them.
It may be hard for us, who by and large sit comfortably in North America, to identify with this. This is why the Haggadah reminds us that we must “see ourselves as if we [personally] left Egypt.” As we spend the next week preparing to retell our story, let us all make sure that the next generation will be able to tell the story of how we came to the aid of those in need.
Shabbat Shalom.