Rabbi 360

Today is the anniversary of Executive Order 9066, signed on this day in 1942 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, establishing the Japanese internment during WWII. I am still incredulous that I did not learn this history growing up back east. 

As Jews, this shameful part of American history should be resonant, both because of the fear and xenophobia directed towards Jews throughout our history, but also because during WWII, the same American government that imprisoned Japanese residents also refused entry to Jewish refugees, sending them back to the Holocaust. 

We can also recognize the diversity within the Jewish people, knowing that there are those within our communities who are impacted by both of these events. 

I wrote this first last year and now offer it again on this Day of Remembrance.

On this Day of Remembrance,
We commemorate the Japanese internment
We remember the over 120,000 taken from homes and farms
schools and jobs
And placed in detention
For no other reason than heritage and identity.

As Jews,
we know what it is like to be
Removed from our communities
Stripped of our possessions
Exiled to camps
Treated as other and unwanted.

Let us remember
the same government
That imprisoned its citizens from Japan
Closed its doors to Jewish refugees from Europe,
Forcing them to return to a terrible fate.

Let us remember
the suffering caused
by a nation that professes equality and liberty
yet acted with fear and suspicion.

Let us remember
the words of our Torah,
“Do not oppress the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

And as we remember,
we commit to overcome
Racism and hatred
Fear and xenophobia.

We commit to welcoming the immigrant
and loving our neighbor,
and understanding that we are all created betzelem Elohim, in the image of God.

We commit to the principles of
Zachor (Remember) and
Nidoto Nai Yoni (Let It Not Happen Again).

Ken yehi ratzon, may it be so.