Jewish organizations react to immigration bill failure

Jewish organizations were disappointed by the Senate’s failure Thursday to end a filibuster of the immigration reform bill.”Although we had numerous concerns with the underlying legislation being considered, the effort to address the many failings of our current and broken system was essential,” said Mark Pelavin, associate director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, in a statement. Pelavin added that Jews should support immigration reform because “throughout the centuries Jews have known what it has meant to be strangers in the lands in which they dwelled.”Echoing RAC’s sentiment, Gideon Aronoff, president and CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, released a statement expressing HIAS’ extreme disappointment, but commended Senate leaders for their willingness to bring up the bill in the coming weeks. Both groups are calling on the government to redouble efforts to reform immigration and provide a path to legalization for illegal aliens, protect immigrant families and secure U.S. borders.