.וַאֲהַבְתֶּם אֶת־הַגֵּר כִּי־גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
Love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt (Deuteronomy 10:19)
As rabbis and cantors across Minnesota, we write out of collective concern for what is happening in our beloved state. No matter how you understand the need for immigration reform and border security, the actions of federal agents in our home are having a devastating impact on the people of our communities. This is a moment that requires us to stand united with our fellow Minnesotans.
We grieve the tragic death of Renee Nicole Good z’l, fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on January 7th in front of her wife and horrified neighbors. We mourn for Renee’s death and the heartbreak her family and loved ones are experiencing.
Alongside our grief is horror: horror that our fellow Minnesotans are terrified to leave their homes and even to answer their doors. Many people are not going to the jobs they rely on to afford their basic needs, or to attend worship services. Parents are scared to send their children to school. Schools, daycare centers and businesses are afraid to open, as ICE makes arrests on their doorsteps. Community members who are eager to help are fearful, in the wake of Renee Good’s killing, that they, too, may be targeted, harassed, or even killed. Our tradition repeatedly teaches us to love the stranger, remembering that we too have known the experience of being immigrants in a new land.
And alongside that horror is resolve: resolve to take action – as individuals and as a collective – to bear witness and make a difference. Right now we witness agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) wreaking havoc across our state. These actions have no home here. This is not what we know to be good and right as Minnesotans across the political spectrum who protect each other, the stranger in our midst, and our shared human dignity.
We know this moment is overwhelming and can make us feel helpless in the face of a monumental challenge. Even as we need to ensure our own physical and mental well-being, we can’t let our fears stop us from taking the first step of action. We take strength from the prophet Jeremiah,
אַ֠תָּ֠ה אַל־תִּירָ֞א עַבְדִּ֤י יַֽעֲקֹב֙ נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֔ה כִּ֥י אִתְּךָ֖ אָ֑נִי
But you, have no fear, My servant Jacob —declares God— For I am with you. (Jeremiah 46:28)
There are many avenues to stand up to protect our communities and it is incumbent upon all of us to get involved. Stand With Minnesota has organized various ways to get involved and we are here to help you access resources and find paths for action.
We hope that in the days ahead, chesed, kindness, will define the way we interact with each other. We know that all people are created in the image of God, regardless of immigration status. As we move ahead, we pray for comfort from the grief we are experiencing, courage to witness pain even when it is uncomfortable, and the resolve to take action toward building the world we want to see. We pray:
Ribbono Shel Olam,
Protect our cities and our state. Spread a canopy of peace and protection over all those wrongfully targeted by ICE at this moment. Strengthen those who stand beside them.
Grant sound judgment, integrity, and compassion to all who are entrusted with the responsibility of keeping our communities safe. Help us uphold our sacred duty to care for one another, for the stranger and the needy among us. And may our cities and State be a place where people of every background and beliefs know safety, dignity, and peace.
Members of the Minnesota Rabbinical Association and the Minnesota Cantors Association
Rabbi Esther Adler
Rabbi Jill Avrin
Rabbi Barbara Block
Rabbi Michaela Brown
Rabbi Eva Cohen
Rabbi Norman Cohen
Rabbi Barry D. Cytron
Rabbi Alexander Davis
Rabbi Max Davis
Hazzan Joanna Dulkin
Rabbi Ryan Dulkin
Rabbi Shoshana Dworsky
Rabbi Avraham Ettedgui
Cantor Wendy Fried
Rabbi Joey Glick
Rabbi Matt Goldberg
Rabbi Yosi Gordon
Rabbi Jennifer G. Hartman
Cantor Tamar Havilio
Rabbi Justin Held
Rabbi Rebecca Kamil
Rabbi Ricky Kamil
Rabbi Emma Kippley-Ogman
Rabbi Harold J. Kravitz
Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg
Rabbi Lynn Liberman
Rabbi David Locketz
Rabbi Tamar Magill-Grimm
Rabbi Cathy Nemiroff
Rabbi Avi S. Olitzky
Rabbi Debra Rappaport
Rabbi Heather Renetzky
Rabbi Shalom Resnick Bell
Rabbi Jason Rodich
Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg
Rabbi Sam Schauvaney
Rabbi Jeffrey Schein
Cantor Heather Seid
Rabbi Sammy Seid
Rabbi Adam Stock Spilker
Cantor Rachel Stock Spilker
Rabbi David Steinberg
Rabbi Sharon Stiefel
Cantor Jennifer Strauss-Klein
Rabbi Samantha Thal
Rabbi David B. Thomas
Rabbi Aaron Weininger
Rabbi Michelle Werner
Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman
To the signatories of the “Letter from Minnesota Jewish Clergy Regarding ICE Presence,”
I write this not as an enemy of compassion, nor as someone indifferent to suffering, but as someone deeply troubled by the moral asymmetry and selective outrage reflected in your letter. As clergy, you occupy a position of extraordinary influence. With that influence comes responsibility—not merely to express grief, but to uphold truth, consistency, and the rule of law, especially in moments of crisis.
Your letter frames recent events in Minnesota as evidence of terror, injustice, and moral failure by federal authorities. Yet it does so by stripping those events of essential facts, by omitting agency and causality, and by elevating one narrative of victimhood while ignoring others that are far less convenient to the political moment.
The death of Renee Good is tragic. All loss of life is tragic. But tragedy does not absolve responsibility, nor does grief nullify facts. By all available accounts, Ms. Good was not an innocent bystander caught in indiscriminate violence. She was actively interfering with a lawful federal operation and used her vehicle as a weapon against an ICE agent. In any other context—any other agency, any other political backdrop—this would be universally recognized as a lethal assault. The agent’s response was not wanton violence; it was self-defense in the face of an imminent threat. To erase that reality because the agency involved is ICE is not moral clarity—it is moral distortion.
What is most troubling is not that you mourned her death, but that your letter refuses to acknowledge her actions, while assigning collective blame to law enforcement acting within its legal authority. That omission is not neutral. It reframes aggression as martyrdom and lawful enforcement as tyranny. When clergy participate in that reframing, they do not calm fear—they legitimize it.
Equally troubling is the silence that surrounds other victims—victims whose stories do not serve the same narrative. Where are the statewide letters, the vigils, the moral outrage when women are murdered by illegal immigrants or repeat offenders who should never have been in this country? Where are the calls for justice when victims are killed on buses, in parking lots, or in their homes by individuals shielded by the very breakdown of enforcement your letter condemns? Their absence from the discourse is not accidental. Their stories are inconvenient.
This selective moral amplification sends a devastating message: that some victims are worthy of national grief and moral reckoning, while others are relegated to obscurity because acknowledging them would complicate a preferred political story. Judaism teaches that all human life is sacred—not only the lives that advance an ideological cause.
Historically, faith leaders have served as unifiers, moral anchors, and voices of restraint. Your letter does not call for calm. It does not call for cooperation. It does not condemn interference with lawful government functions. Instead, it adopts the language and posture of activism—casting institutions as illegitimate, stoking fear, and encouraging distrust of authority without offering a responsible path forward.
That is not pastoral leadership. It is political agitation clothed in religious language.
It is entirely appropriate for clergy to call for humane enforcement, transparency, and accountability. It is entirely appropriate to demand that law enforcement act within the bounds of law and ethics. But it is irresponsible to do so by ignoring facts, excusing violence when it aligns with a cause, and remaining silent when victims fall outside the approved narrative.
Fear is not leadership. Outrage is not wisdom. And moral authority cannot be sustained when it is applied selectively.
If faith leaders wish to be taken seriously as voices of justice, they must be willing to speak uncomfortable truths in all directions—to acknowledge both the humanity of those harmed and the legitimacy of lawful authority, to condemn violence whether it comes from the state or from those who seek to undermine it, and to grieve all victims equally, not only the politically useful ones.
Anything less is not prophetic courage. It is abdication of moral responsibility.
Respectfully,
Dave Yergin
First of all, I apologize for my late, restrained response. After Saturday, I just can’t stay silent any longer.
@ Dave Y.
Whose “Rule of Law” are you referring to? Are you saying ICE’s conduct represents the “Rule of Law”?
Which “facts” are you referring to? Are you suggesting the officers who shot Renee Goode, Sosa Celis, and Alex Pretti are the victims? You’re saying the released footage (that our children are watching) is inconvenient because our conclusions are boiled down to… politics?
The ship has sailed to debate politics, sir. There is no grey area to discuss on the docks. These issues are not about Left or Right; they are about Good or Bad… or, as you put it, Moral or Immoral.
Can we both agree that when basic justice is at stake, it’s on us to stand up and do what’s right? As my late Uncle Michael (may his memory be a blessing) used to say: “In a place where there aren’t decent people, BE the decent person.” (I think he was quoting the Talmud or Mishnah.)
If, in your words, “Fear is not leadership. Outrage is not wisdom,” will you continue to defend ICE? To act as an apologist for American fascism, authoritarianism, and totalitarianism?
Do you not agree that the role of our religious officials and leaders is to lead us in the fight against racism and bigotry?
I endorse the statements in this letter from our Minnesota Jewish Clergy and the Minnesota Rabbinical Assembly. It was beautifully and dutifully articulated. It confronts what is bad, and yes, it IS “Moral Clarity” AND “Moral Distortion,” with the goal that we, as a Jewish community, can BE the good people TOGETHER. It makes me proud to be a Jew because I am proud to be a Jew. And the world’s Jews are watching us right now. The lights are on us. This is OUR moment.
Your statements and the absence of those who are deliberately turning their backs on what’s going on make me feel shame. How can it not be the same for you? After two fatal deaths and two months of tyranny, are you still going to turn your backs on doing what is morally right… for your neighbors, for your country, and after all WE’VE endured, for your own people?
It’s a simple yes or no answer.
Jesse Baines Simon
Shir Tikvah Congregant
Temple of Aaron 2023 Young Professional Leadership Award Recipient