It is titled The danger of ignoring religious bigotry and it appears in today’s Washington Post
Marcus was involved in a twitter exchange that began when someone directed at her the following words about her scheduled appearance on Face the Nation with Karl Rove and Ron Brownstein:
Oh, what a diverse panel, two Jews and a shabbos goy
Suffice it to say, the exchange went downhill from there. But this was in the context of remarks by a number of Republican candidates that one could well characterize as not exactly supportive of full religious freedom for all people in this country. Marcus reiterates their expressions, and the problems thereto.
Here I am going to push fair use, and I hope I do not get slapped down for it, but the end of her column Marcus lays it out powerfully in a way that speaks to me — while I no longer religiously identify as Jewish, I am shaped as much by my Jewish background and sense of ethics as I am by the words of George Fox, “founder” of the Quakers, that I am to answer that of God in each person I meet.
The latter part of the column is, as Marcus makes clear, her answer to those who challenge her for standing up for the refugees from Syria, regardless of their religious preference.
I will close with those words, which appear beneath the break
My answer comes in part from Rabbi Hillel two millennia ago. “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?” Intolerance breeds intolerance. Silence enables it.
And, in terms of Muslim refugees seeking to come here, my answer comes from Leviticus, a passage that, as it happens, I chanted at my daughter’s bat mitzvah: “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Faux controversies over the war on Christmas and red Starbucks cups notwithstanding, Jews and Muslims, no matter how assimilated, are destined to feel at times like strangers in a Christian- majority country.
As a Jew, it is impossible for me to consider the current refugee debate without recalling this country’s — my country’s — tragic failure to admit thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, amid similar warnings of embedded dangers. History and faith inform my reaction.
So, anti-Semitic tweeters, you are correct: My religion is relevant to my professional life. Just not for the twisted reasons you imagine.