Statement on the Presidential Suspension of the Syrian Refugee Program and Anti-Immigration Executive Order from (Select) Muslim-Majority Countries
As members of the faculty of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University, we express our outrage at the executive order issued by President Trump denying entry into the United States for the next 90 days to citizens of seven Muslim countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. Although some aspects of the executive order have been stayed Saturday night, the executive order has arbitrarily thrown the lives of innocent people around the globe into disarray, among them at least one of Stanford’s students directly, and many others in a variety of ways. As scholars of Jewish history and culture we are well aware of the denial of entry into the United States to Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler, and are outraged that fellow human beings, refugees from Syria who are fleeing war and death are not being welcomed here. The scandal to our democratic culture is heightened by the fact that President Trump signed these executive orders on a day that is internationally recognized as Holocaust Memorial Day, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. We are shocked by proposals of a future religious test for entry into the United States. Along with colleagues around the country we demand that the United States government end this outrageous and potentially anti-constitutional policy immediately.
Signed,
Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert, Director, Taube Center for Jewish Studies, Associate Professor of Religious Studies
Maya Arad, Writer-in-Residence, Jewish Studies and Drama Department
Zachary Baker, Reinhard Family Curator of Judaica and Hebraica Collections
Joel Beinin, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History
Jonathan Berger, Denning Family Provostial Professor
Amir Eshel, Edward Clark Crossett Professor of Humanistic Studies and Professor of Comparative Literature
Shelley Fisher-Fishkin, Joseph S. Atha Professor in Humanities
Katherine Jolluck, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History
Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann, Senior Associate Dean for Religious Life, Lecturer in Jewish Studies
Ari Kelman, Jim Joseph Chair in Education and Jewish Studies and Associate Professor, by courtesy, of Religious Studies
Norman Naimark, Robert & Florence McDonnell Professor of E. European Studies, Fisher Family Director of SGS and Professor, by courtesy, of German Studies and Senior Fellow, by courtesy, at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute
Reviel Netz, Suppes Professor of Greek Mathematics and Astronomy
Gallia Porat, Lecturer in Hebrew
Aron Rodrigue, Charles Michael Professor in Jewish History and Culture
Noah Rosenberg, Stanford Professor of Population Genetics and Society
Nancy Ruttenburg, William Robertson Coe Professor of American Literature, Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and Slavic Literatures
Gabriella Safran, Eva Chernov Lokey Professor in Jewish Studies and Professor, by courtesy, of German Studies
Lee S. Shulman, President Emeritus, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus
Anna Schultz, Associate Professor of Music
Vered Shemtov, Eva Chernov Lokey Senior Lecturer in Hebrew Language and Literature
Sam Wineburg, Margaret Jacks Professor of Education and History (by courtesy)
Steven Zipperstein, Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History