Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice
Misa Santuario
June 3, 2007
Rabbi Laurie Coskey Ed.D.
Calling us to Holiness
I am happy to be here today with people who care so much about faith and justice, about families and their stories because that’s what the New Sanctuary Movement is all about -- families and their stories. We believe that the stories of real people and their loved ones can change the face of the dialogue around effective and humane immigration reform.
I would like to share with you a sad story from my own family. I have not told this story publicly before.
My grandmother died in 2001, just six years ago. I adored her and better yet, she adored me. She called mi preciosa, mi alma, mi corazon, and when I misbehaved, criatura. From the Island of Rhodes, today one of the Greek islands, my great grandparents only spoke Spanish even though they lived in this country for more than 50 years.Shortly after her death, as we were taking apart her home, we found a picture of a beautiful young woman dressed formally the way that girls dressed in the late 1930s. I was curious as to who she was? I have been haunted by the answer I received from my great uncle, my grandmother’s brother?
The photo captured the picture of their cousin who remained on the Island of Rhodes after my great grandparents immigrated to the US. Her parents too had attempted to immigrate to the US during the Second World War and were unable to because of quotas. So her mother sent this photo and requested that my great uncle marry his cousin in order to save the girl from the Nazis.
My great grandparents did not believe that the Nazi’s would reach the Island of Rhodes, where the Jews had enjoyed a life of freedom from discrimination. I learned that my great grandparents felt that they couldn’t feed another mouth and they didn’t want to force their son to marry a girl he had never met. Tragically, they said NO. She died in the concentration camps together with the rest of her family, because the Nazis did get to the Island of Rhodes and annihilated the vibrant Jewish community there.
Immigration isn’t a new topic for our country’s legislators. In some ways, the Jewish community in the United States became strengthened and cohesive fighting the restrictive immigration policies during the Second World War. Too many of our people perished because they were simply not allowed into this country or others.
I don’t believe that this round of policy reform will go far enough or come close enough to creating humane legislation that responds to the reality of 12 million people who create the foundation of our communities and economies all over this country. I do not see that the legislation proposed paves the way for future generations of immigrants forced to leave dire circumstances and come to this country looking for a better life, willing to make their own sacrifices and contributions.
I do believe that it is our moral and ethical obligation as people of faith, and children of God, to fight this fight -- and when it’s finished, to fight it again because justice is not measured by legislative sessions. In my tradition we call the central passage in the book of Leviticus the Holiness Code. Because if the scroll on which we have written in Hebrew the five books of Moses is unrolled and folded right in half, Leviticus 19 is right in the middle. The passage begins, You shall be holy because I the Lord your God am holy and then it tells us how to be holy including to love our neighbor as ourselves.
The holiness code instructs us explicitly and clearly about just treatment for immigrants. We learn: “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 the Lord am your God.
Recently a group of clergy leaders were meeting with ICE officials to formally request that they put an end to the raids in San Diego County. (ICE is the old Border Patrol). In the course of the conversation, an ICE officer remarked that only history could judge whether a path toward legal residency for 12 million immigrants currently in the country would benefit our great nation. Rev. Scott Richardson the Dean of this Cathedral respectfully replied that we would have to answer to a voice more demanding than that of history, that God would judge each of us and our nation based on how we treated the immigrants living among us. God expects us to be holy people. The Koran, The Old and New Testaments teach us to respect the spark of the divine in every person no matter on which side of the border that spark was lit. That is the holy path and that is how we will be judged by our Creator.
So many of you have deeply personal stories, that are touching and meaningful. Some of you have stories of great courage, ultimate victory, wholeness and wellbeing. To that we say AMEN. Some of you, like me have sad stories, tragic stories where our families suffered or perhaps even lost their lives.
Our mission is clear, to become holy people, vessels of God and recognize the spark of the divine. Today we call for humane, effective, comprehensive, immigration reform. AND we will continue that clarion call tomorrow and the next day, because our call to holiness doesn’t begin or end with a session of the congress.
May our stories remind us that justice is not yet fulfilled! May our stories move us to justice!