To many American Jews, Ellis Island is another Jerusalem and the Statue of Liberty a secular Mount Sinai. In the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th there was a mass migration of Jews arriving on our shores from eastern Europe. They were refugees escaping from persecution and pogrom. America welcomed them with open arms.

Today, the eyes of Miss Liberty must be rusty from her tears. The specter of parents being arrested on the 1st day of school with no thought of the welfare of their children should haunt all of us. It is a continuation of a cruelty that includes putting children in cages and forcibly separating them from their parents.

As Jews we decried the silence of the world during the holocaust. As Jews and as Americans, we dare not be silent.