In Fight for Syrian Refugees, US Groups Recall Jews’ Flight From Europe

American Jewish organizations don’t see the Syrian refugees as a threat; they see them as a reminder.

With rare unanimity on an issue that has stirred partisan passion, a cross-section of the community has defended the Obama administration’s refugee policy in terms recalling the plight of Jews fleeing Nazi Europe who were refused entry into the United States.

“The Jewish community has an important perspective on this debate,” the Orthodox Union said in its statement. “Just a few decades ago, refugees from the terror and violence in Hitler’s Europe sought refuge in the United States and were turned away due to suspicions about their nationality.”

Echoed the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly: “We can sadly remember all too well the Jews who were turned away when they sought refuge in the United States on the eve of, and during, World War II.”

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Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JTA that the key to winning over conservatives and Republicans was to take their concerns seriously, which he said the Obama administration had failed to do. Gartenstein-Ross said President Barack Obama was wrong-footed, for instance, in deriding GOP presidential candidates as “scared of widows and orphans.”

“Part of being president is you don’t debate against the lowest common denominator on the other side,” he said.

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