Do you know Nilüfer Demir? Her name may be unfamiliar to you, but Demir's heartbreaking photo of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi's limp body carried from the sea to the sands of Lesbos touched millions around the world.Reporting on the migration crisis was non-stop all summer as boats washed ashore from Sicily to Greece and refugees were herded in camps in France or denied train passage in Hungary. But it was the individual who made us freeze from our daily routine and consider the magnitude of the refugees' pain.
The numbers of refugees is staggering—more than 215,000 in August alone.The total number since January 1, 2015 is over 360,000—more than the population of St. Paul or St. Louis.Even the photos of the endless lines of refugees walking the tracks in Hungary or packed on a dock waiting for a ferry are overwhelming.
Those who are closing their hearts to refugees for economic or cultural or political reasons seem focused on the numbers, the mass.When the crisis is reduced to faceless numbers, I hear fear speaking.Hordes of strangers are approaching the border, they will destroy our culture, they will bankrupt our country, they will harm us.Those who have met the refugees with food or clothing or simply a warm greeting, are seeing people—one at a time.
Rosh haShana is approaching so I begin to think about the refugee crisis within the framework of Judaism. The Torah and the Prophets have plenty to tell us about how to treat refugees or aliens—the Torah's injunction to treat the stranger well is followed by the phrase, כי גר היית בארץ מצרים—because you (sing.) were a stranger in the Land of Egypt. In the Passover seder when we're commanded to remember the Israelites' enslavement, the command is formulated in the singular.Each individual needs to remember. When the Prophets refer to the oppressed—the alien, orphan, and widow—they speak in the singular.We build empathy in the singular, one at a time.
Senators Dick Durbin and Amy Klobuchar insisted in a May 21, 2015 letter—three months before Demir's photo appeared-- that President Obama should respond to the refugee crisis.Now it's time for each of us to search our own hearts and formulate our own response.