To: Rep. David Cicilline (RI-1), Sen. John Reed (RI-1), and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (RI-2)

Rhode Islanders Have Open Arms

As Rhode Islanders, we are deeply disappointed that President Obama is accepting only 10,000 Syrian refugees. Germany, a nation of over 80 million, is accepting 800,000 refugees, and despite the role of the US in the region and the size of our nation, we are taking only a fraction of that. Rhode Islanders are caring people with open arms, and many of us are immigrants or have immigrant backgrounds ourselves. We implore you to fight in Congress and with the Obama administration for the US to accept more refugees.

Why is this important?

As a Jewish person, the history of the US and the rest of the world shunning Jewish refugees in WWII is still seared on our collective memory. The failure of the US to take a significant number of refugees now evokes the story of the St. Louis, a ship carrying Jewish refugees to the US that President Franklin D. Roosevelt denied entry, sending most of its passengers to their death. As a Jewish American in 2015, I will not stand for repeating the same mistake.