Because we were Jews and now, because we are Jews

Seventy-five years ago this week, in response to the horrors of the Holocaust, the United Nations convened the1951 Refugee Convention. The United States, along with 25 other nations, signed the international refugee protection agreement, recognizing refugees’ right to seek safety and accepting its obligations to accept refugees. We also mark the anniversary (June 1939) of the tragedy of the MS St Louis ship carrying refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. The United States, Cuba and Canada refused entry to this “ship of the damned”; it was forced to return to Germany, where 264 were murdered by the Naz...