On the Rabbis Without Borders blog, my personal story of accompanying an asylum seeker in immigration court: The email request arrives on Friday around 2:30 pm. The subject: “Accompaniment Urgently Needed for Asylum Court Case.” Volunteers are needed on June 6th. It’s been more than five months since I returned from Nogales, where I was … Read more
In my recent post on the Rabbis Without Borders blog, I reflect on what I learned during the 2019 Point-in-Time Homelessness Count. Although I volunteered for the first time in 2017, and I blogged about that experience, this time was different for me. Then, I was assigned to a team that covered a few square miles … Read more
My recent post on the Rabbis Without Borders blog is a personal reflection on the spiritual journey I took in the desert in Arivaca, Arizona: Shortly after sunrise on the second morning of our visit at KBI’s retreat house, Father Pete Neely arrives to take us to Arivaca. There is frost on the windshield as we … Read more
Bearing witness in the federal courthouse in Tucson, I begin to understand how complicated the issue of immigration is. The court proceedings of Operation Streamline may be efficient, but there is nothing easy about observing the criminal prosecution of frightened, desperate people. In Nogales we learned about the criminalization of immigration. We heard about the … Read more
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down. —Robert Frost We begin our walking tour of downtown Nogales at the DeConcini Port, before crossing an … Read more
After parking our rental cars at the Shell gas station in Nogales, Arizona and walking across the border into Nogales, Sonora on the shoulder of the road, we arrive at the comedor (lit., dining room). At 9 a.m. the building is nearly empty, except for staff and volunteers wearing yellow vests, who are preparing the … Read more
In my recent post on the Rabbis Without Borders blog, I share some stories from a recent immersion experience with the Kino Border Initiative in Nogales: We are a group of ten rabbis and educators, organized by Rabbis Without Borders colleague Charles Arian and hosted by a Catholic organization whose vision is humane, just, workable … Read more