Senior rabbi of Reform Judaism issues warning over Donald Trump’s immigration policies

Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner has warned how Donald Trump’s policies on immigration have the hallmarks of others in history which have led to genocides.

Speaking as communal leaders, politicians and the children’s commissioner for England expressed their dismay over what they perceive to be the inhumane treatment of families in the US – notably how thousands of children have been separated from their parents on the US border with Mexico, the senior rabbi of Reform Judaism told The Observer on Sunday: “What has happened on the US-Mexico border is a moment of reckoning as it points to a systemic toxicity in public discourse and action. This needs to be stopped now.”

Adding that the warning signs were all too apparent, she said: “The numbing of empathy, the dehumanisation of other people through the encouragement of disdain are documented stages in history that have led to atrocities and even genocides.”

But believing Trump should visit the UK next month, she hopes British PM Theresa May can use the opportunity to “to convey to him in the strongest terms the depth of opposition that these policies have evoked.”