Comparing Arizona to Nazi Germany is wrong, Jewish group tells L.A. politicians

Is Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigration really comparable to Nazi Germany?

The comparison was made by some on the L.A. City Council on Wednesday as the body approved a boycott against Arizona. But one leading Jewish group says its "irresponsible" to liken the Arizona law to Nazi tactics.

“The Wiesenthal Center along with many other Americans expressed our opposition to the language of the Arizona immigration bill but it is inappropriate and irresponsible to link the bill to the actions of Nazi Germany,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the center, said in a statement. “In a democracy, there is no need to demonize opponents, even when they are mistaken, to those whose actions led to history's most notorious crime."

On Wednesday, council members compared Arizona’s action to Nazi Germany and the beginning of the Holocaust, as well as to the internment and deportation of Japanese Americans during World War II. A new Arizona law, which will take effect July 23, will require police to determine whether people they stop are in the country illegally, which critics say will lead to racial profiling.

In April, Cardinal Roger Mahony also compared Arizona's law to Nazism. "American people are fair-minded and respectful. I can't imagine Arizonans now reverting to German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques whereby people are required to turn one another in to the authorities on any suspicion of documentation," Mahony wrote on his blog. 

A Wiesenthal Center official did agree with Mahony that the Arizona law is wrong. “This isn’t about immigration, it’s about discrimination,” Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the center, said in a statement. “We should not forget that we’re a nation of immigrants. This law makes no sense -- it guarantees and stigmatizes people of color as second-class citizens and exposes them to intimidation and the use of racial profiling as a weapon of bias."

-- Shelby Grad

Photos: Marvin Hier, Roger Mahony. L.A. Times files.

Comments

[mrbyron]

I thank Arazona, has every right to adpot any law given to protect their boarders, many illegals are comming accross and are violent and bring drugs, futhermore, they receieve free health care, they get a place to stay, free food stamps, and hold jobs.
Many American are loosing jobs and when unemployment is all dried up they will head over th the wefair-line to see if they can what illegals are getting if they go to the streets like many all ready do.
Our government is broken and dosen't have a clue to secure the boader, nor do they have a clue to end the war that cost 5b a month. If the government is broken system than where is homeland security,

[Mufon]

The award for most hysterical apples and oranges comparison goes to: David Silchman. Can someone help me hand him his award so he doesn't have to get down off his pedestal, since we're all ignorant and he's not.

[C.L.(Chuck)Troupe]

Doesn't anyone realize that California has a virtually identical immigration enforcement law on the books? California Penal Code Section 834b is older than Arizona's and requires our police agencies to do the very same things the AZ officers will be doing.

But there is a really big difference: Penal Code 834b has never been enforced!

Evidently it is perfectly okay for the heads of our state government, law enforcement agencies (and courts), to willfully and deliberately ignore and disobey the laws that they don't approve of, but the rest of us must never question or judge the sacred law. What a crock. And what a bunch of lying hypocrites!

But speaking of boycotts, what is the lame brained mayor and the retarded morons of the city counsel going to do when Arizona shuts of the water?

C.L.(Chuck)Troupe
Bellflower

[biged50]

Yes, we are a nation of immigrants. They forgot to mention, that are forefathers came LEGALLY to this country. People wishing to come here legally,most times have to have a sponsor and the sponsor has to provide a 'Affidavit of Support' so that these NEW immigrants will not be a drain on society. Meaning not getting any government funds. Now on another matter, LA city council wants to boycott Arizona. I guess they forgot that Arizona supplies 25% of LA's power? AND racial profiling? When a crime is committed, you get a description and if half the population is Latino, well........ Arizona could start with their welfare programs and require ALL people receiving state funds to come in and prove their citizenship? This could stop fraud where one person with multiple names and multiple names at one address. You stop giving free money, people will go someplace else to get it. AND, why isn't Mexico doing something for there own people?????

[Peter]

The Wiesenthal center is wrong to suggest that the pogroms against illegals are not the same as the pogroms against illegals.

As the Jews were once depicted in Germany as evil incarnate, now the illegals are represented widely in American society as such, especially in Arizona.

Like the Jews in the past, the illegals are being blamed for any evil. All illegals are considered, moochers, rapists, killers, drug traffickers, traffic violators etc.

I even saw someone post the other day that the illegal's kids have 'bad genes' and that he does not want those to propagate.

Sounds familiar?

Our fake immigration and anti-immigration laws are no different from the ones instituted by the Germans against Jews. They target, victimize a defenseless group of people. They blame all bad things happening here to (illegal) immigrants.

Americas are now getting into the habit of blaming terrorism, lack of security, loss of jobs, housing problems, social security costs, health care cost etc to illegals.

And this victimizing of innocent illegals is not a fringe movement, but mainstream now, so we should be very worried, including the Wiesenthal center. Who says who will be next on the list to be victimized once this mainstream movement id done making America 'Illegal Clean'?

[Madelaine Landry]

Still, the bigger issue is not whether making this comparison is valid. Rather it is about the question we all ask after viewing documentaries and/or movies about the Nazi's roundup and subsequent murder of the Jewish people during the Holocaust. "How did decent German people allow this to happen in their midst?" It's called the spiral of silence - an entire communication theory is based upon the question. So arguing whether comparisons to the Nazi tactics are viable in the case of the imminent Arizona immigration law misses the point. WE are the ones who cannot remain silent while such discrimination is allowed to continue and become law. WE are the ones who must protest for those who have no voice in a democracy when the vulnerable among us have their civil rights trampled upon. WE are the ones who must live with the consequences when we choose to say nothing, do nothing or feel nothing while witnessing the abuse of our fellow human beings, documented or not. If WE fail to speak up, generations in the future will view the facts of this story and rightfully ask "why did decent United States citizens allow this to happen without trying to stop it?"