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Why this Fast of Esther, I'm Fasting for Immigration Reform (Hint: I'm an Observant Jewish Woman. And an Immigrant.)

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As an observant Jew, I, along with so many people in the Jewish community will spend today fasting and reflectingon the bravery of Queen Esther and the Jews in the Persian Empire. At that time, they gathered to fast and to pray in order to spare the Jewish people from extermination. There are seven fast days every year. But today’s fast feels different. On this day, women from across the Jewish spectrum are fasting and raising awareness to speak truth to power to achieve just, humane, and comprehensive immigration reform. As a Jew, as a woman and as an immigrant from Canada, I identify with the gravity of the mission of the day.

My own immigration is fairly straightforward. In the 1990s I was a graduate student in New York. I married an American and applied for permanent residency, the latter being a tedious and time-consuming process that required lots of forms, an interview with INS and paying fees to process my application.

I know my story is part of a larger narrative and that many are not as lucky as I have been. I, like so many others, come from a long immigrant history. My father’s family fled deeper into Eastern Europe during World War II. Once the war was over, they made their way to Israel. My father was born en route to pre-state Palestine.

My mother’s parents moved to Palestine from Greece and Turkey before she was born in 1949, fleeing difficult living conditions and likely persecution. Even though they lived with relative security and freedom, living conditions were hard in Israel. After the Six-Day War my parents tried to move to the United States from Israel. But though my father was granted an entry visa, the process of bringing my mother and then-baby sister would have been lengthy with long separations. Not unreasonably, my parents wanted to keep the family together, and so they moved to Canada instead.

I have been fortunate. I am mindful that, though it took some work, my own immigration experience was seamless and involved education, not persecution. But our immigration system remains broken; in particular, the kinds of family separations that my parents had to deal with have become worse. At the same time, employers’ needs aren’t being met, we’re not being smart about border security, and too many immigrant workers are taken advantage of. I had the privilege of being at the White House with the President this past fall at an immigration reform http://bit.ly/1iErxyL event. In his closing remarks, the President ended with a moment of gratitude — and a call to action:

I want to thank you for your persistence. I want to thank you for your activism. I want to thank you for your passion and your heart when it comes to this issue. And I want to tell you, you’ve got to keep it up. Keep putting the pressure on all of us to get this done. There are going to be moments — and there are always moments like this in big efforts at reform — where you meet resistance, and the press will declare something dead, it’s not going to happen, but that can be overcome.

If we follow Esther’s example and work together, we can affect change and, literally, save lives. I’ve been proud to work with the Reform Movement in advocating for immigration reform, including cooperative efforts between the RAC, Rabbis Organizing Rabbis, Just Congregations, Reform CA and our 13 summer camps. So many other Jewish organizations – among them, NCJW – have made immigration a central focus of their work. Now is the time for all of us to follow Esther’s example/ Comprehensive immigration reform is long overdue. Call or write your member of Congress.

We know the ending to Esther’s story – and we mark it with, among other things, celebrations and a retelling of her story. Let us work together so that there comes a day, soon, when we – advocates and beneficiaries of immigration reform alike – reflect on this very moment in history, and celebrate the victory of immigration reform and the promise of what’s to come.

Daphne Price is the development director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. She is charged with overseeing the RAC’s $1 million annual campaign as well as the RAC’s capital and endowment campaigns. Daphne is the lead advisor on use of Jewish text and tradition in the RAC’s social justice work. From 1999 to 2011 Daphne served as Executive Assistant to the Director, Rabbi David Saperstein, where she coordinated the work of the executive office. A native Torontonian, Daphne graduated from York University in Toronto with a bachelor’s degree (Honors) in Religious Studies, focusing on Judaism Studies, and a master’s degree in Jewish History from Concordia University in Montreal. She also spent two years studying at Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel program. In her spare time Daphne sits on the board of the Melvin J Berman Hebrew Academy (where her children go to school) and is the Food Editor on www.challahcrumbs.com. You can also find her training for marathons throughout the year.

Note: The National Council of Jewish Women is leading this March 13 fast, coinciding with the Fast of Esther, part of a month of fasts and actions for immigration reform, organized by We Belong Together, with SEIU and the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM).