How is this immigration order going to keep U.S. citizens safe?

After ending what was a much-needed Shabbat rest on Saturday, I was hit by the horrifying headline:

“Trump’s order blocks immigrants at airports, stoking fear around globe.”

An Iranian scientist headed to a lab in Massachusetts; a student planning to study at Yale; legal green-card holding permanent residents of the U.S. returning from visits abroad; an interpreter working on behalf of the U.S. government for more than 10 years; Syrian refugees already cleared for entry and sitting on flights.

All detained when they arrived in our great country.

Or facing the threat of being sent back to their own.

An MIT student who wasn’t even allowed to board a plane

A young Iranian scientist recently awarded a fellowship to study cardiovascular medicine at Harvard who found out that his and his wife’s visas had been suspended.

A Syrian family that had been living in a Turkish refugee camp for over two years and had been scheduled to arrive in Cleveland on Tuesday, but now will no longer be arriving in Cleveland anytime soon.

A Christian family from Syria detained even though they were approved by all the proper legal channels and had green cards and visas.

I sat in a state of shock, confusion, anger and incredulity. How can this be happening in my country?

I want someone to explain to me how this order, issued on Holocaust Remembrance Day no less, is supposed to keep our loyal, fair-minded, justice-loving, flag-waving U.S. citizens safe.

Help me to understand.

I’m all for keeping any and all terrorists out of the country, but that’s not what’s going on here.

All I’m seeing is a grave injustice being perpetrated against people who only wish for the same things we all wish for: a safe place to live and the ability to contribute their skills and talents to better this country.

I’m seeing human beings treated like criminals because they are guilty of the crime of being residents of Muslim countries or being Syrian refugees. Or just being “The Other.”

As Jews, we’ve been there and done that. During WWII, when so many were trying desperately to flee Europe, a 1938 Fortune magazine poll revealed that two-thirds of those surveyed “agreed with the idea of keeping Jews out of the country.”

Even after Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, a 1939 Gallup American Institute of Public Opinion poll reflected no change in public opinion. And why?

Author Daniel Gross of Smithsonian magazine gives us the answer: “Government officials from the State Department to the FBI to President Franklin Roosevelt himself argued that (Jewish) refugees posed a serious threat to national security.”

So in 1939, a ship carrying more than 900 Jews was not allowed to dock in the United States. The MS St. Louis was forced to turn back, leaving many of its passengers to face a death sentence in the concentration camps.

What is happening right now has the sound of history repeating itself.

It’s the most blatant example of xenophobia that I’ve witnessed in my lifetime.

It’s unethical and it fills me with despair.

We need to do something about it.

The ironic thing about this tragic directive is that it is bound to backfire.

It won’t mitigate the threat of terrorism in this country. It will make that threat more likely, because those who hate us will hate us even more.

And let’s not think for a moment that just because this may not effect us personally, we have nothing to worry about.

When one group of people is discriminated against based on their homeland or faith, then we are all in danger. Because sooner or later, we will be next.

It’s not just Muslims who are threatened. It’s all of humanity.

It’s a threat to the values that I thought we stood for: equality, freedom of religion, justice, fairness, respect, compassion, brotherhood, sisterhood, love for each other. It’s all at stake.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

I am in anguish, but I will try not to give in to despondency. As long as I have a voice, I will not be silent.

And I will raise my voice with others who refuse to be silent as well, whether that means joining protest marches, writing letters or speaking out publicly.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about human rights. As a Jew and as a human being, it is my responsibility to do whatever I can to defend those rights. I hope you will join me.

This story was originally published January 30, 2017 at 11:48 AM with the headline "How is this immigration order going to keep U.S. citizens safe?."