The Jewish community was also distinguished by a Borim holiday this week, a group of Activists and allies of the anti -war Jews occupied the Trump Tower In New York, in protest against the planned deportation of legal residents in the United States, Colombia graduates Mahmoud Khalil. The timing of such an act Civil disobedienceWhile the coincidence is deep. Purim is a testimony of the will to preserve the Jewish self-intertwined with the liberation of all peoples.
In short, the Borim vacation tells the story of Haman, the consultant of the Persian king, who is wearing the killing of all the Jews in the empire. The Queen of the Jews secretly Esther and her cousin, Mordechai, is planning Haman when Esther reveals a Jew of her husband and convinces the king to spare her people from genocide. Many are the happiest day in the Jewish calendar. My children and my friends in pre -school, for example, wear clothes and celebrate parties and marches throughout the week.
The contradiction between their joy and the suffering of the Palestinians and children in our country appears more flagrant than ever. In particular, a woman and one child who are entitled to only weeks, both American citizens who embody the stages of life who claims the conservative right to River, who are now missing their husband and father.
Khalil is a green card holder and a permanent legal resident. He is married to an American. His wife is pregnant with 8 months. A graduate graduate from Colombia University, a graduate, worked as a matter of students negotiating between the Colombia administration and students protesting Israeli violence in Gaza on October 7. On Saturday, March 8, a car was forced in front of his pregnant wife with a lawsuit against retinal tactics. Colombia may have known this would come. Khalil wrote to the university asking for help again and again in the weeks before his kidnapping without a response. Some accuse the senior university officials of providing their name actively to the ice.
The Ministry of Internal Security argues that he can deport Khalil because he led “activities alignment with Hamas”, but he has not yet provided evidence of this. While a federal judge temporarily prevented the expulsion of the 30 -year -old country from the country, all defenders of freedom of expression will be wise to seriously take Trump’s warning that this administration will criminalize the opposition against Israel and support the Palestinians – and inevitably other forms of peaceful protest. What does it mean that such a prominent university appears to be complicit in this arrest as part of its stated effort to fight anti -Semitism, even when many Jewish students are launched in Colombia and other places, “not in our name”?
IFNOTNOW, a non -profit organization formed by “American Jews who organize our society to end American support for the apartheid regime in Israel, equality in demand, justice, and a prosperous future for all Palestinians and Israelis”, highlights the tension between the Burim vacation and the current political scenery, participation published on March 11 reads:
As the Jews of the Conscience who were destroyed by the ongoing atrocities in Gaza committed in our name, many of us carry this question: How can we notice this year that embraces Riveri, a competition, and play?
In the story of Esther, Mordechai is covered by his sister’s daughter to enter a Jew to prevent atrocities from occurring. Just like Esther, we are invited to enter our strength – not by moving away from our Jews, but by entering it for the age of change. We are invited to speak, take a position, and rise with integrity in our perfection.
This is the truth: the Jews are not composed. For many of us, Khalil’s arrest, detention and potential deportation is an equation of Jewish values and the traditions of our culture in protest and resistance.
The support of the Anti -Defamation Association of this administration and its treatment of non -exile arrangements is one of the many betrayals of our cultural and religious history. This faction of the Jewish leadership once again swore with an evangelical right that suffers from his own hatred and bias towards the Jews in the guise of defending our right to exist in Israel.
Now, the right is to use the spirit of Purim in criminalizing, sanctions and closure of Jewish solidarity with the Palestinian issue in the United States, the Heritage Foundation, and the right -wing tank behind the famous project 2025 to move the policy of the second administration Trump, and the “support network of Hamas” on the university campus claims “counter -gases”, and “there” is A and it is the one that gives up the dead. Americans interested in Washington … are likely to be funded by the same supporters who support [Hamas Support Network]“Including more than ten members of the Democratic Congress. Rabbi Sharon Kleinbum, co -chair of the Rabbi and Brown Treasury on J. He explains how the “Esther Project” for the newly launched heritage Foundation is kidnapped by Purim It is “deep harm to its names by focusing narrowly on the leftist critics of Israel while ignoring the right -wing anti -right:”
The documents from the Esther project reveal a disturbing strategy. According to what was stated, he seeks to identify individuals and pressure them “the mastermind of the mind”, including Jewish figures such as Mohsen George Soros and Illinois Ruler JB Pritzker. This language raises anti -Semitic tropics of Jewish control and manipulation – historically that historically fueled discrimination and violence. The project also proposes targeting “foreign members exposed to deportation” and working with law enforcement “to generate uncomfortable conditions” for progressive activists, raising serious concerns about civil freedoms and anti -Semitism weapons for political ends. We have already seen this playing book at Columbia University, where Trump announced “the first among many.” History shows the dangers of authoritarian regimes that define citizenship on the basis of political identity and opinions.
The struggle for the rights of demonstrators, such as Mahmoud Khalil, is to interfere in a Judaina like Esther on Borim and beyond. Like her salary, this is an action not only from challenge but self -preservation.
A modern piece in New Republic He argued that the Use of the Trump administration to anti -Semitism to justify the campaign would lead to many Jews at risk. The author Emily Tamkin condemned the arrest as “a sarcastic trick by an administration full of people who are strengthening and empowering anti -Semitic conspiracies, which are installed to attack higher education, freedom of expression, free gathering, immigration, and the criteria that are due to the use of Jews, Jewish fear, and somewhat hostile.”
The German priest, who is often attached to Martin Nimuller, comes to mind, “First they came to the demonstrators …”. We know the rest. No one – certainly not the Jewish people – believed in light of this authoritarian administration that seems determined to undermine freedom of expression and democracy itself. Any of us can be or love Mahmoud Khalil. None of us can be stained.
