American rabbis urge states to let in refugees
More than a thousand US rabbis have signed a petition calling on the country's highest legislative body, Congress, to open America's doors to Syrian refugees. Reshet Bet reports this.
The petition was initiated by one of the oldest Jewish organizations in the United States, the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS).
HIAS was founded about 130 years ago to support and protect refugees arriving in the United States from all over the world.
The petition notes deep concern over the reluctance of American politicians to change the migration rules that impede the admission of refugees from Syria to the United States.
In this regard, the rabbis are reminded of the fault of the US government in the tragedy that occurred on the eve of World War II with 930 Jewish refugees from Germany.
We are talking about German Jews who fled from the Nazi regime on the ship St. Louis.
In June, 1939, this cruise ship arrived at the port of Havana, but the pro-American puppet government of Cuba refused to provide political asylum to the Jews.
After standing off the coast of Cuba for four days, the ship returned to Europe. The vast majority of the St. Louis' passengers later died in German concentration camps. The exception was only a few who were sheltered by Great Britain.
The migration crisis, which became one of the main themes of the year for Europe, reached the United States. Barack Obama administration back in September presented a plan for locating 10 in a country of thousands of refugees from Syria during 2016. However after terrorist attacks in Paris against refugees were made state governors 31 and other politicians. They coming up with the most incredible explanations of why migrants should not be allowed in - for example, some Republicans are seriously afraid that the Syrians in the US will be cold.