More than 1,000 American rabbis across the U.S. have signed a letter of support for resettling Syrian refugees in the U.S. even as they urged Congress to protect the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
The letter was delivered to all members of the U.S. Congress on Dec. 2.
It came after the U.S. House of Representatives voted last month to ban Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering the U.S. without more stringent vetting after the Paris terror attacks, according to the AFP.
A large number of state governors also declared the refugees persona non grata.
In the letter, the rabbis called "on our elected officials to exercise moral leadership for the protection of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program."
They cited that since its founding, the U.S. has offered a home to oppressed people of the world. "Since its founding, the United States has offered refuge and protection to the world's most vulnerable. Time and time again, those refugees were Jews. Whether they were fleeing pogroms in Tzarist Russia, the horrors of the Holocaust or persecution in Soviet Russia or Iran, our relatives and friends found safety on these shores," they said.
The rabbis said they are "alarmed to see so many politicians declaring their opposition to welcoming refugees."
Calls for banning the entry of the refugees mounted after the Paris and Beirut terror attacks. Such calls are expected to heighten further following the Dec. 2 San Bernardino shooting rampage by a Muslim couple with allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS).
Paying no thought to the all-too real possibility that ISIS terrorists could be among the refugees, the rabbis said in 1939, the U.S. refused to let the S.S. St. Louis dock in the country, sending over 900 Jewish refugees back to Europe, where many died in concentration camps.
"In 1939, our country could not tell the difference between an actual enemy and the victims of an enemy. In 2015, let us not make the same mistake," they said.
"We therefore urge our elected officials to support refugee resettlement and to oppose any measures that would actually or effectively halt resettlement or prohibit or restrict funding for any groups of refugees."
They added, "As rabbis, we take seriously the biblical mandate to 'welcome the stranger.' We call on our elected officials to uphold the great legacy of a country that welcomes refugees."
The U.S. has already admitted 2,363 refugees from Syria since October 2011.
