A Rabbi's Appeal To Jewish American Citizenists
09/04/2013
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A long-time reader who is a rabbi sent me the following statement on immigration policy. 

Originally, he was bravely intending to publish it under his own name and seek the endorsement of other Jews like him of some public standing. 

I cautioned him to think carefully before going public with such a moderate manifesto. He eventually decided, prudently, to remain anonymous, but gave me permission to post it.

Jewish American Citizenists

While being strong supporters of human rights for all, we believe that the benefits of American citizenship are being diluted by our present inundation of immigrants, whether documented or otherwise.  

Particularly in precarious economic times such as our own, we believe that the financial wellbeing and concerns of lower and middle income Americans needs to be of greater concerns to our policymakers than the financial wellbeing and concerns of non-citizens. 

This would appear to be the view of the majority of the American public and of little controversy. 

We add our names here, as Jewish Americans, to make explicit the fact repeatedly proven in polls, that assumed Jewish support for increased immigration is vastly exaggerated and that any prominent Jewish supporters of such policies speak only for themselves rather than for the Jewish community as a whole. 

We, ourselves, share the sensible talmudic view that "the poor of your own city take precedence" and that increased immigration tends to depress wages and increase job competition for those Americans who have been hardest hit by the painful economic downturn of this past decade.  

The overwhelming majority of Americans oppose increased immigration to the United States and we proudly concur with that view.

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