As we prepare to observe Tishah b’Av and commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem that led to the exile of the Jewish people for centuries to come, we are acutely aware that we find ourselves in the midst of the worst refugee crisis in recorded history, with more than 68 million people displaced worldwide. Given these extraordinary numbers, the continued attacks on asylum and the refugee resettlement program in the United States over the last eighteen months are even more inhumane.

Of course, we know that the proverbial 10th of Av will come, and we will rise up from our mourning with renewed resolve to support refugees and asylum seekers. First, though, we take time to dwell fully in the mourning demanded by the 9th of Av. We fervently lament the many cruel actions this administration has taken to limit the ability of refugees and asylum seekers to seek safety in our country, and we mourn for lives destroyed and lives lost.

How To Use This Text

If you know Eicha trōp*, record a video of yourself dressed in black and seated on the floor (as is customary on Tishah b’Av), chanting the text below. If you do not know trōp, simply read the text. Post the video to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with a message about why you are choosing to include refugees and asylum seekers in your Tishah b’Av observance and use the following hashtags: #tishabav #eicha #refugeeswelcome. Tag @hiasrefugees on all platforms. Also, consider tagging colleagues, friends, and family with whom this message resonates and invite them to record and post their own video. You may, of course, also include a chanting or reading of this text in your communal Tishah b’Av observance.

*Please note that, because the text is in English, rather than Hebrew, some of the trōp markings will appear backwards (e.g., munach, mapach, etc.).

This acrostic supplement to public readings of Eikhah (Lamentations) was composed by Rabbi Rachel Grant Meyer and cantilized by Rabbi Marisa Elana James, for HIAS.

Source(s)

[gview file=”https://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Lamentations-6-for-Tisha-bAv-HIAS-2018.pdf”]

“💬 איכה פרק ו׳ | Lamentations “chapter 6” in cantilized English, a supplement to public readings of Eikhah by HIAS (2018)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Rachel Grant Meyer

A graduate of Columbia University, Rabbi Rachel Grant Meyer was ordained by HUC-JIR in New York. Prior to rabbinical school, Rabbi Meyer worked as a Program Associate in the KESHER: College Department at the URJ. After ordination, Rabbi Meyer served as Assistant Rabbi at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City. In June 2015, Rabbi Meyer joined HIAS, the world’s oldest, and only Jewish, refugee resettlement organization, as the Director of Education for Community Engagement. At HIAS, she develops educational materials, resources, and programs that educate American Jews about refugee issues, connecting the plight of contemporary refugees to Jewish values and history. Rabbi Meyer’s writing has been featured in the Forward online and in the upcoming book Seven Days, Many Voices: Insights into the Biblical Story of Creation (CCAR Press). (bio via the Jewish Women's Archive)

Marisa Elana James

Rabbi Marisa Elana James is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and a long-time member of the CBST community. Before rabbinical school, Marisa was a college English teacher, competitive ballroom dancer, insurance broker, student pilot, bookstore manager, and professional Torah reader. As a teenager growing up in Connecticut, she was a co-founder of her high school’s GSA, the second to be founded in the state. While living in Jerusalem for more than five years, Marisa worked for Encounter Programs, taught Introduction to Judaism classes in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, studied at a wide variety of schools (including Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, secular, and non-Jewish settings), and helped create and lead the rabbinical student program for T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, where she most recently worked. Marisa has also taught English at the University of Connecticut and Rutgers, and acted as cantor for communities in Israel and America.

HIAS

HIAS (founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) is an American nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees. The organization works with people whose lives and freedom are believed to be at risk due to war, persecution, or violence. HIAS has offices in the United States and across Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Since its inception, HIAS has helped resettle more than 4.5 million people.

Works of related interest:

 

💬 מְגִלַּת אֵיכָה | Megillat Eikhah (Lamentations) in acrostic English translation by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

💬 מְגִלַּת אֵיכָה | Megillat Eikhah (Lamentations) for Reading on Tishah b’Av, translation by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid.org)

💬 מְגִלַּת אֵיכָה | Megillat Eikhah: Chantable English translation with trōp, by Len Fellman

💬 Eikhah for the Earth: Sorrow, Hope, and Action from the Shalom Center

💬 ילקוט מזמורים לבן סירא פרק נ״א | An Appendix of Psalms of Ben Sira chapter 51, vocalized, cantillated, and translated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

How Desolate Lie Our Borders, a prayer adaptated from Eikhah for a Tishah b’Av vigil at an immigrant detention center by Rabbi Brant Rosen (2019)

💬 Nevertheless She Persisted: A Modern Esther Tribute for Purim and Women’s History Month, by Rabbi David Evan Markus (Bayit, 2018)

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