(RNS) — Opposition to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign has brought thousands of people into the streets of U.S. cities. Among them are the growing ranks of clergy who have wanted to do more than preach from the pulpit about the political forces they say are violating their most sacred values.
About 140 of those clergy — rabbis in particular — are converging on Washington, D.C., beginning Monday (Feb. 9), for a three-day National Jewish Clergy Convening hosted by T’ruah, the progressive Jewish human rights organization. The convening is intended to train rabbis to organize, strategize and, if needed, put their bodies on the line in defense of their values.
“This is about how moral leaders can stand up to protect democracy and to protect our neighbors,” said T’ruah CEO Rabbi Jill Jacobs. “That includes, of course, standing up to ICE and standing up to protect immigrant neighbors on the street, but it also includes how to take actions to protect democracy.”
The U.S. Jewish community’s response to the federal immigration crackdown has been building gradually. Immigration is a core piece of the Jewish experience in the U.S., and one that unites many rabbis at a time when Israel’s actions in Gaza tend to divide them.
Whi …