Rabbis organizing Rabbis' "gang of ten"

Yesterday, ten members of Rabbis organizing Rabbis – representing the Reform movement and its Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), and Religious Action Center (the RAC) – visited Capitol Hill to lobby in favor of comprehensive immigration reform and the bi-partisan legislation that will be presented to the Senate following next week’s congressional recess. I was honored to be one of our “gang of ten.” Accompanied by talented and dedicated RAC staff members – particularly deputy director Rachel Laser, legislative Assistant Sarah Krinsky, program associate Molly Benoit, program director Michael Namath (who participated as one of our rabbinic delegates, and the indefatigable director David Saperstein – we had the opportunity to discuss the legislation and crucial issues related to it with the offices of eight key senators, including three of the “gang of eight” who have spearheaded the effort to formulate a comprehensive approach to addressing our immigration system – which is universally held to be broken and in need of repair. To our great delight, we found out in the morning that the proposed legislation, S.R. 744, had passed out of committee late the previous evening, by a vote of 13-5.
And so we shared heartfelt, value-laden conversation with Senators Michael Bennet, Joe Donnelly, Angus King, Dick Durbin, Dan Coats, Kay Hagan, Mark Kirk and Robert Menendez. We expressed our concern that of course the legislation is flawed, a notion with which the senators who drafted it wholly agree. And our perspective is not to let “perfect” get in the way of doing what is good. We also shared our enthusiasm for getting the bill passed, and our willingness (and that of the entire movement) to mobilize on the local and national level to support this effort, and publicly commend those senators who champion this cause. Our presentations were favorably received, and further energized our group’s enthusiasm to rally the Reform Jewish community behind this significant and timely endeavor.
Kudos to my passionate colleagues: Rabbis Seth Limmer, Sam Gordon, Esther Lederman, Baht Weiss, David Adelson, Greg Litcofsky, Ari Margolis (as well as those named above); it was a thrill to join you, to serve the movement and bring RoR to life. I know they join me in expressing deepest gratitude to the senators and their staffers for the time they gave us to address immigration reform at this vital moment. More so, we are grateful to the amazing RAC staff for arranging our opportunity to meet with such an array of essential personnel. May it be our continued fortune to see comprehensive immigration reform made real, and “to ensure that justice for our country’s most vulnerable is imminent and everlasting – that it is neither delayed nor denied.”