The tradition of faith communities providing sanctuary to those in need has its origins in this week’s Torah portion. Exodus 21:13 says: “If [a man] did so (kills someone) but not by design—it came about by an act of God—I will assign you a place to which he can flee.” This concept is fleshed out in more detail in Numbers 35: 10-15, where God instructs the Israelites to set up six refuge cities to which someone accused of murder can flee for safety from possible revenge from the victim’s family, until his case can be fairly adjudicated. The instructions end: “These six cities shall serve the Israelites and the resident foreigner among them for refuge, so that any man who slays a person unintentionally may flee there.”
While the original intent was to protect someone accused of a crime, it grew into a recognized function of faith communities to be a place of refuge for those in trouble from immoral laws. In the United States, the idea of sanctuary first came into practice in the years before the Civil War. The Underground Railroad came into being to help slaves flee the South and find safety in many congregations throughout the country.
Sanctuary is about providing safe space to those who are victims of unjust laws, as enslaved people
In the 1980’s, the Sanctuary Movement was organized by faith communities protecting refugees fleeing civil wars in Central America, who faced death squads at home. It grew to over 400 congregations across the country and eventually succeeded in changing American immigration and refugee law to recognize the needs of asylum seekers who came to the US for safety.
The New Sanctuary Movement was revived in the last ten years, growing to over 1400 congregations today. Sanctuary congregations provide respite and shelter for undocumented people (‘resident foreigners’) in their communities who are at imminent risk for deportation. Like the Biblical refuge cities, the idea is not to allow someone to evade the law, but to provide a safe space to protect them from summary judgement and allow for due process.
For over 30 years, congregations were able to provide this protection because immigration officials had a policy of not entering ‘sensitive locations’ – schools, hospitals, and houses of worship. That policy has been rescinded by the present Administration, putting undocumented people at greater risk of deportation and denying faith communities their Constitutionally-protected right to live out their faith teachings to help the stranger among us.
The Reform Movement has joined in a lawsuit along with over two dozen other faith organizations to bring back this policy. Learn more about the lawsuit and other ways the Reform Movement, our congregations, and each of us can be good allies to our immigrant siblings in our communities:
-Rabbi Bonnie Margulis
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