PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Rabbi Dr. Barat Ellman, Member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
3:59:16
·
3 min
Rabbi Dr. Barat Ellman, representing Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, speaks against the 30/60 day shelter eviction policy for new New Yorkers, citing Jewish traditions of hospitality and care for strangers. She argues that the city has the capacity to house everyone in need and criticizes Mayor Adams' policies as destabilizing for migrants.
- Shares personal experience of hosting a Colombian migrant who successfully established himself with proper support
- Emphasizes the importance of stability for migrants, especially for children's education
- Criticizes Mayor Adams for pitting New Yorkers against immigrants and calls for an end to the shelter eviction policy
Rabbi Dr. Barat Ellman
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Can you hear me?
3:59:16
Yeah.
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Yes.
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So good afternoon, and thank you for letting me speak here today.
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My name is Rabbi doctor Vera Elman, and I am one of 6,000 members of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.
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And I'm here to speak against the 30, 60 day rule that is currently causing shelter evictions for new New Yorkers.
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This administration's shelter eviction policy must end immediately despite even the some tweaks that were made just yesterday.
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My Jewish tradition has much to say on hospitality and care for the stranger or foreigners and on human dignity.
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In Genesis, we see Abraham rush to welcome and host 3 strangers who come to his tent, insisting they stay for a bath, food, and drink.
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We're commanded 36 times in our Torah, the 5 books of Moses, to love and care for the stranger, including providing the stranger with the opportunity to rest on the Sabbath.
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In Deuteronomy, we're told that when an indentured servant has fulfilled his time of service, the master must set that person up with housing, supplies, and the wherewithal to establish themselves economically.
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That is because the Torah recognizes that most of us, if given proper care, are capable of becoming contributing members to society.
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The migrants who come to our great city are no different.
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If given proper support, they are able to establish themselves.
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And I know this because about 2 years ago, my husband and I hosted a young Colombian man for several nights.
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His time with us gave him a measure of stability, which proved critical to him.
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We connected him to services and stayed in touch with him, and now he is working as a barber in Queens and living in his own apartment.
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Mine is not the only such story.
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Friends of mine have also opened their homes to individuals and families because they know the importance of giving someone a leg up.
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And we also heard about, Afrikana Adamaba is a credible model for this kind of aid.
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But surely, the city of New York as a municipality can do the same.
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And yet mayor Adams advocates for this 30, 60 day policy that destabilizes migrants, that takes housing away from them right after they have found shelter.
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His policies means that children have to change schools every couple of months, parents have to scramble to settle them again and again, And single adults have only 30 days to live in shelters before being cooked at kicked out for good.
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New York has the capacity to house everyone in this city who needs it, both unhoused citizens and newly arrived immigrants and refugees.
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Mayor Adams has spent the last 3 years pitting New Yorkers against each other, claiming that immigrants are the reason our city is struggling, all while he's been stealing 1,000,000 of taxpayer dollars and granting noncompetitive government contracts to his friends, flouting daily the message emblazoned at the entrance of our city, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
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Send these, the homeless tempest tossed to me.
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I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
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I, along with JFREJ and many other migrant rights groups and housing justice groups, declare that these words on the Statue of Liberty are not mere jargon.
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They have meaning.
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They declare that immigrants are welcome here in New York City.
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It is Eric Adams' Trumpian policies of shelter eviction that are not.
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Thank you.
