Deportations, family breakups, community tensions—nationally and locally, we’ve seen these before and we’ve fought them before.  Beth Israel Center members took an active part in the sanctuary movement of the 1980s.  Now the need has come around again.

Madison has many long-established outlets for assisting vulnerable neighbors, including volunteer opportunities at such organizations as the Immigration Justice Center of the UW Law School, Madison Pathways to Citizenship, Community Immigration Law Clinic, and the Literacy Network.  A newer response to harsh federal deportation policy is the formation of the Dane Sanctuary Coalition, part of a national New Sanctuary Movement.

On October 19, Beth Israel Center will host two speakers active in the Dane Sanctuary Coalition—Rabbi Bonnie Margulis of Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice, and Sergio Gonzales, a UW graduate student whose dissertation traces the history of the sanctuary movement in Wisconsin.

Beth Israel Center welcomes anyone interested in learning about the current deportation climate, and possible responses to it, to attend this program.