How to Lose the War on Terror
By Robin Wright
By Robin Wright
Last July, anguished
by the war in Syria and the plight of millions fleeing the grisly six-year conflict,
Andrea Dettelbach e-mailed her rabbi at Temple Sinai, in Washington, D.C. She
suggested that the synagogue sponsor a Syrian refugee family. He agreed. Temple
Sinai has since raised “unbelievable amounts of money” for the family, she told
me, found cell phones to give them when they arrive, organized a life-skills
team to help with everything from banking to education, and lined up doctors,
including a female internist who speaks Arabic. Dettelbach’s basement is full
of boxes, of donated furnishings, clothing, a television. “One member of the
congregation decided, instead of giving gifts last year, to buy all new pots
and pans in the names of her friends.” Temple Sinai partnered with Lutheran
Social Services to launch the complex process.
The wait was almost over. “We were expecting a family within
a week or two,” she said. “This is the history of the Jewish people and a
commitment to helping those in need. As an American, it’s opening our doors to
those who seek refuge. It’s who we are as a people. How can we turn our back on
them?”
On Wednesday, President Trump decreed an end to all
processing and admission of Syrian refugees in the United States “until such
time as I have determined that sufficient changes have been made.” The arrival
of Temple Sinai’s refugee family, who had been waiting for years and come so
close to finding a safe haven, is now put off indefinitely “or forever,”
Dettelbach told me. “They were vetted to an inch of their lives. It’s insane to
hold them accountable for what is going on in their country—or in our country.”
Trump’s action was part of a wide-ranging, eight-page executive order titled
“Protecting the Nation from Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nationals.”
Read on....
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