By Rabbi Rachel Esserman

Nonprofit organizations – including synagogues – and nonprofit newspapers are not allowed to endorse political candidates. However, as a Jewish newspaper, we can talk about Jewish values that should be taken into consideration by voters. Below are three that I hope my readers will think deeply about before casting their votes in November.

Welcoming the stranger

I believe all countries, including the U.S., have a right to make decisions about the number of immigrants who enter their shores. But we Jews might want to step back and think about how U.S. immigrant policies of the past affected us.

United States quotas in the 1930s and ‘40s meant that many Jews who wanted to escape Nazi Germany perished in the Holocaust because of the very limited number who were allowed to enter our country. That includes those on the MS St. Louis, a ship that tried to bring refugees first to Cuba and then the United States, but was turned away with almost all its passengers sent back to their deaths in Europe.

One reason for these restrictive policies was complaints about the Jewish population that had managed to come to our shores at the turn of the 20th century. These Jewish immigrants were considered a source of crime and disease. Jewish gangsters’ crimes included murder, prostitution, bootlegging and more. Jewish immigrants were also considered un-American for supporting labor unions at a time when violence was used by those on both sides of the conflicts. 

Before we offer blanket condemnation to those who seek to come to the U.S., we need to think back to our past because we were once them: strangers in a strange land, strangers looking for a home where we could live in relative safely. The commandment to welcome the stranger appears 36 times in the Torah. Which candidate will support this very Jewish value, even as they seek to make wise decisions about our borders?

Healthcare

In the Talmud (Sanhedrin 17b:10), there is a list detailing what a city must contain before a rabbi is allowed to live there. One requirement is that a doctor must be available.

Judaism has always been big on healthcare. We are allowed to break almost any commandment in order to save a life, known in Hebrew as pikuach nefesh. We are required to help those who are sick until they are on the brink of death. (That point is defined differently by different contemporary movements, but the principle is the same in all: we must try to save a life.)

Affordable healthcare saves lives. People without health insurance often have to choose between going to a doctor and paying their rent or putting food on the table. That means that diseases that might have been easily cured if caught early may result in death. Even if a person survives, they might be burdened the rest of their lives with paying for that very expensive healthcare. One of the leading causes of bankruptcy is medical bills. 

As Jews, we should be leading the fight to make certain everyone has healthcare available, if only for pikuach nefesh, the commandment to save a life. Which candidate will support this very Jewish value?

Disavowing hatred, racism and antisemitism

Leviticus 19:18 commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves. That’s not always easy to follow when you live in a multi-cultural society like the United States. People have different ideas and practices that we may not find to our liking. However, the Torah still commands us to love them. (I know some consider the word neighbor to mean only fellow Jews, but that is not the plain meaning of the text.)

I’m willing to admit that we can’t always adore everyone who lives in our country – especially those whose ideas we find abhorrent – but we are required not to hate them. Hatred leads to racism and antisemitism. In fact, many people who hate one group of people often hate anyone who is different from them. Hatred and the resulting discrimination deny our country the talents of large numbers of people. 

Remember, when one group is discriminated against, we Jews are often next on the list. Which candidate will condemn hatred in all its forms?