Rabbi Michael Adam Latz, Senior Rabbi of Congregation Shir Tikvah in Minneapolis, Minnesota, recently wrote this response to Rev. Martin Niemoller’s piece, as he contemplates the potential for the past to repeat itself, even in the United States of America.

First they came for the African Americans and I spoke up—

Because I am my sisters’ and my brothers’ keeper.

And then they came for the women and I spoke up—

Because women hold up half the sky.

And then they came for the immigrants and I spoke up—

Because I remember the ideals of our democracy.

And then they came for the Muslims and I spoke up—

Because they are my cousins and we are one human family.

And then they came for the Native Americans and Mother Earth and I spoke up—

Because the blood-soaked land cries and the mountains weep.

They keep coming.

We keep rising up.

Because we Jews know the cost of silence.

We remember where we came from.

And we will link arms, because when you come for our neighbors, you come for us—

And THAT just won’t stand.


haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story
Source: Rabbi Adam Latz