Rabbi Cary Kozberg #racist #pratt jta.org
“This is about a culture clash,” Rabbi Cary Kozberg, who leads Temple Sholom, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “We, as the citizens of Springfield, are being disenfranchised.”
Like Trump, J.D. Vance and others who have taken aim at Springfield’s immigrant population, Kozberg says he believes the new arrivals — most of whom are in the country legally — are changing the city’s character for the worse.
“Haiti is not known for its, shall we say, adherence to Western civilized values,” Kozberg said.
The comments might sound jarring coming from a rabbi ordained by the Reform movement. Reform Jewish congregations and rabbis have been among the most outspoken opponents of Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies stretching back across the more than nine years since he entered politics. During Trump’s presidency, Reform Jews protested against his travel ban on Muslim-majority countries, rallied across the United States in support of refugees and lobbied to support “Dreamers,” young adults who as children were brought to the country illegally by their parents. Many cited their own families’ immigrant histories as a reason to oppose Trump.