Anatevka ...

Looking at the news, we see Hispanic immigrants (documented and not) packing up to leave Arizona ahead of the horrible "immigration" law going into effect. Legal or not, they all fear persecution and harassment; being stopped by police and harassed by those civilians who would do the government's work (usually after a stop at the bar), whether they are American citizens or not. It will get ugly.

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Latino activists are encouraging their community to check their tail lights, not to travel in large groups and even to remove the Catholic rosaries from their rear-view mirrors.

Erika, a 23-year-old undocumented student, came to Mesa, Arizona in 1998 at the age of 11. She says her family was escaping from her abusive father. Erika dreams of being a counselor one day but is bracing to be separated from her family.

"I've been looking forward to being able to do what I studied for, what I worked so hard for and show this country that immigrants can also be good people," she said. "We're not here to take over."

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When I heard this, I immediately thought of Mrs. F's grandparents. A century ago, my wife's people came from Russia, Jews who had to leave their homes, families, and lives for an uncertain future in the US or other places who would have them. Her grandmother's samovar sits in an exalted place (she carried it all the way) in our house to remember their suffering to give their children a better life.

Click to see my dining room in actual size.

It wasn't all sweetness and light in the shtetl, but it was their home for generations and were forced from it. Granted, situations are different than they were in Russia at the turn of the last century but persecution because of race or religion is the same all over, at any point in history.

You will have children, born in America, American citizens, taken to places that are as foreign to them as the shores of America were to Mrs. F's Russian ancestors when they landed at Ellis Island. Innocent children who have no responsibility for their predicament, for the choices their parents made years, even decades, before, will either end up in the nightmarish foster system or leave the country along with their parents.

It is about fear and an "ethnic cleansing" of sorts and we've found over the years that fear is a great motivator. It is somewhat understandable in the Tsarist Russia of a century ago. It is unconscionable this will take place in 21st Century America.

Fiddler on the Roof - Anatevka