“We Cannot Stand Idly By,” Rabbi Dan Slipakoff
Rabbi Dan Slipakoff
March 29, 2025
The video of Rumeysa Ozturk’s arrest is less than two minutes long. In that instant Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University, is surrounded by masked plainclothes ICE agents, handcuffed, and taken away in an unmarked vehicle. We often imagine this type of kidnapping to happen in some foreign authoritarian regime. But it is happening here. Right here.
What I cannot unsee from the video are the other pedestrians who passed by the scene. The dog walker and the jogger, who continued going about their day. Did they actually see what was happening? I want to believe they did not. Otherwise, surely they would do something, right? Wouldn’t I? Wouldn’t you?
The number of people abducted by ICE continues to grow — across the country and acutely here at home. Federal officials tout their efforts of rounding up our neighbors, our friends, our family. Fear and anger are natural responses — but that cannot be where we stop. When injustice seeks to silence us, we must find our voice. We must not stand idly by.
This age-old imperative is a call to action against injustice, demanding that we speak out when power is abused and civil liberties are threatened. Silence in the face of such wrongdoing makes us complicit. As Jews, we are called to uphold righteousness and fairness, even when it feels inconvenient or politically fraught.
Our Jewish community is far too familiar with hate-fueled authoritarianism to fall victim to the sham narrative that these arrests somehow protect us. They do not. When those in power manipulate Jewish fears to justify policies that restrict free speech and due process, they do not protect us — they endanger us. Not all of these arrests are carried out in the name of combating antisemitism, but we must be especially vigilant when our community’s pain is weaponized to advance repression. The Department of Homeland Security alleges that Ozturk engaged in “activities in support of Hamas”. These “activities” refer to an op-ed written in 2024 in a student newspaper. The essay argued that the university was not living up to its stated commitments to free speech and civic engagement concerning the Israel-Gaza conflict. Some may disagree with her positions, but we cannot deny her right to express them.
Too often, policies framed as protection for the Jewish community serve as pretexts for broader crackdowns on dissent, rather than sincere efforts to ensure our well-being. Judaism values free speech and open discourse, recognizing that silencing voices — even those we may disagree with — erodes the very foundations of justice. We must not allow our name to be used as cover for suppressing the rights of others. True security comes not from exclusion and repression, but from building coalitions with others who fight for justice. It is time to build coalitions with our Temple Israel community.