Reflections from the National Council of Jewish Women’s (NCJW) Opening Event & Fall Meeting
This week, I had the honor of moderating NCJW’s Opening Event & Fall Meeting at Congregation Gates of Prayer, where over 75 community members gathered to learn about one of the most urgent issues of our time: immigration and deportation. Our panel featured leaders whose work touches this issue from different angles — government, legal advocacy, community organizing, and direct support to immigrant families here in Louisiana.
What we heard was sobering.
Immigrant families, asylum seekers, and the advocates who support them are navigating an already complex system that is now shifting rapidly. The people suffering the most are those who came here seeking safety and stability, who work, raise families, and contribute to our communities. And yet many now fear leaving their homes for work, school, worship, medical appointments, or even groceries.
We have all seen the videos: parents and grandparents — people simply trying to live their lives — violently thrown to the ground and taken by masked officers. Families separated in an instant. But what we heard Monday night is even more alarming: people in Louisiana are being detained past legal deadlines, deported despite valid court orders, and held in conditions that defy dignity. Louisiana now holds the second-highest number of immigration detainees in the country, many in remote facilities with almost no access to legal or other support.
The room’s response made clear that our Jewish community feels the urgency of this moment. Guided by our own history — as immigrants, refugees, and survivors — we understand what it means to be vulnerable in systems of power. Those memories do not stay in the past; they shape our responsibility today.
We often look back to the Civil Rights Movement as a pinnacle of Jewish values in action, when members of our community showed up even when it was risky and hard. We are right to remember that history — but we cannot take pride in the courage of previous generations if we are not willing to exercise the same courage now. We cannot claim that legacy if we are not prepared to live it.
We are facing the civil rights challenge of our time. And it is our turn.
Our Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) reaffirmed this responsibility in a resolution this past May, making clear that supporting these rights is not just policy — it is a Jewish moral obligation. Our tradition teaches: “Do not oppress the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” The question now is not whether we know this teaching, but whether we will act on it.
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This is our moment. Let’s meet it together.
Thank you to NCJW for bringing us together, and to our panelists — Leticia Casildo, Executive Director of Familias Unidas en Acción; Marcela Hernández, Deputy Director of Familias Unidas en Acción; Allyson “Al” Page, Executive Director of Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy (ISLA); and Alanna Rosenberg, Former Section Chief at the New Orleans Asylum Office.
Aaron Bloch
Director of Jewish Multicultural & Governmental Affairs
Aaron Bloch oversees the Behar Center for Jewish-Multicultural Affairs (CJMA) and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC). Contact him directly at aaron@jewishnola.org.
