Minneapolis is right here. Pharaoh is right here.

I got to Minneapolis on Thursday, with 600 other clergy members who had flown in. We came at the call of local organizers who were resisting the ICE invasion of their city, the attacks on Somali and Latino Minnesotans, on anyone who dared to demand human decency. It was negative 18 degrees, and the organizers hadn’t slept and they had been fighting for weeks.

In years past, when I thought about the story of the Exodus and its relevance today, Pharaoh was a metaphor. What happens when Pharaoh stops being a metaphor? What we were seeing in the street looked like the violence of an actual Pharaoh. I had to go to Minneapolis. I felt an inexorable pull to go there, for me, for my congregation, and for God.

I want you to come to Minneapolis with me. You don’t have to get on a plane because Minneapolis is here, in Maryland, in DC, in Virginia. A week before I went to Minneapolis, I testified in Rockville, Maryland, before the Montgomery County Council, in support of a bill to end County collaboration with ICE. I asked the Council what Bible the ICE agents were reading from when they shot Renee Good z”l? What Bible were they reading from when they took Kilmar Abrego Garcia in chains from his wife and children, and threw him into hell?

Maybe the pages of their Bibles were bent and crumpled, and the ink smeared in all that struggle. Maybe that’s what happens with all the door breaking and window smashing it takes to separate parents from their children and put them in cages. Maybe that’s what it took to cover up the words, “When an immigrant lives with you in your land, do not abuse them.” (Leviticus 19:33)

You don’t have to go anywhere to be called to Minneapolis, but you’re going to have to have your courage in your hands. And you have to know that victory over tyranny is possible. JUFJ has been supporting immigrant communities and activists throughout our region for many years, in the streets and in legislative chambers and with mutual aid and at ICE check-ins and in front of ICE detention centers. And in support of our partners at CASA, at Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid, at La ColectiVA, at the Amica Center, and so many more organizations, our movements have won real change for immigrant families here in our own Minneapolis, against our own Pharaohs.

The memories of those who have been murdered by ICE, most recently Alex Pretti z”l, must call us not to despair but to action. Come take action here. Join Jewish clergy — including JUFJ’s own Rabbi Miriam Liebman — and community members in DC on Wednesday, February 11 at 1:30 PM as we demonstrate outside ICE headquarters. Join us in Annapolis on Thursday, February 12 at 9:30 AM to support CASA’s interfaith day of action to demand an end to Maryland’s collaboration with ICE. Join us for ongoing court watch in Fairfax County to protect immigrant Virginians from being detained by ICE outside traffic court or juvenile court.

I hate living the stories of the Bible but here we are. It took a while for Pharaoh to give up and let our people go, but give up he did. And we will be a part of why today’s Pharaohs will give up, and why our people and all people will be able to live in freedom.

In anger and in hope,

Rabbi Scott Perlo
Rabbi, Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation
JUFJ member in Montgomery County, MD
he/him/his

• Baltimore Action Team Meeting

  August 3 | 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

  Join JUFJers from across Baltimore to discuss our ongoing issue campaign work. We will share updates for all the local campaigns and brainstorm on how to move the work forward.

• Baltimore Action Team Meeting

  August 17 | 7:00 pm – 8:15 pm

  Join JUFJers from across Baltimore to discuss our ongoing issue campaign work. We will share updates for all the local campaigns and brainstorm on how to move the work forward.