Final Post — Angry Rabbi
01/29/2019 04:28:44 PM
Here they are. The ones who didn’t make it.
For all the suffering that we encounter in the Exodus story, it gives us a (mostly) happy ending. Moses confronts Pharaoh, plagues punish Egypt, slaves get free. It is, after all, a book of redemption.
As such, it doesn’t dwell too much on the folks that don’t make it. ...Read more...
Post #7 — One Day He Will Go To Heaven and God Will Punish Him
12/20/2018 12:00:00 AM
“Desperation.”
Father Pete is asking me a question, even though it doesn’t sound like one.
“Why do people end up in the desert? Why take a child into danger? It’s not for fun!” His voice is rising now. “Why did a pregnant Mary and Joseph run to Egypt?”
And he...Read more...
Post #6: If You Take One Out it Will Be Extinguished
12/19/2018 06:00:00 PM
The drive west, away from I-19 in southern Arizona, is nothing if not beautiful. Saguaros dot the landscape as you approach the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, majestic mountains rising out of the approaching landscape. We’re in our own caravan, rental cars of rabbis chasing the sun.
Except our path is not unimpeded.
We’re stopped twice — once on I-19 and once on Arivaca Road, at CBP checkpoints. 71 of these “interior checkpoints” are scattered between 25 and 75 miles north of the Mexico–United States border along major U.S. roads.Read more...
Post #5 — That Wall Wasn't There When I Was a Kid
12/19/2018 01:04:03 PM
Nogales, Sonora is culturally similar to Nogales, Arizona. Both towns are almost exclusively Latino, you hear Spanish spoken in both towns, the Mexican food is delicious in both cities. But it’s the Sonora version, at least ten times the size of its Arizona...Read more...
Post #4 — We Would Give Them Food, If They Asked
12/18/2018 10:09:57 AM
By the time the meal is served, the room is beyond packed — a clear violation of fire codes, if such a thing exists in Nogales, Sonora. As rabbis, we’re only just so-so as food service workers, but we get the job done. I’m on drink duty. It’s my job to serve “agua,” which is nothing more than red Kool-Aid. I bounce around from table to table, eager to pour out the sugary water, to...Read more...
Post #3 — God Probably Wants You to Do It
12/18/2018 08:29:32 AM
Our spirit guide during this journey is Father Pete Neely, Associate Director of Education for Kino. A San Francisco native, Father Pete ultimately found his calling as a Jesuit priest. He was assigned to El Salvador during the Salvadoran civil war. It was during that assignment, in 1989, that Salvadoran Army soldiers killed six Jesuits and two others at their residence on the campus of UCA El Salvador San Salvador....Read more...
Post #2: We Have to Have Faith
12/17/2018 01:02:03 PM
The borderlands are international territory. Landing in the Tucson airport, prominent décor and shopping advertisements feature “native” and Mexican rugs, Spanish language, even carpeting the color and texture of the boundary-less desert. The interstate leading to our home-base in Nogales, Arizona is flanked by road signs listing distances in kilometers.
The...Read more...
Post #1: Leaving for the border
12/16/2018 01:00:00 PM
Usually I don't check any bags when I fly. But today, flying to the Mexican border to meet up with the Kino Border Initiative / Iniciativa Kino para la Frontera, I checked an entire suitcase of socks and underwear.
On our orientation call for the trip, on Thursday, we learned that migrant children would be missing basic kid things, like toys, games — and socks and underwear. So I put out the call on our Facebook...Read more...