Temple Sinai Views Immigration Crisis Through Film

With Border Patrol shootings and anti-ICE demonstrations dominating national headlines, it seems more relevant than ever that Temple Sinai is educating about immigrant rights.

The Washington, D.C., Reform temple screened scenes from “Credible Fear,” an immigrant rights documentary in progress, on Feb. 1. The film screening was part of the Davis Center for Social Justice’s Davis Center Docs series at Temple Sinai.

About 120 attendees registered to view one woman’s account of escaping “brutal gang violence” in Guatemala.

“The film is not yet finished, and that’s because it follows one woman’s journey through the asylum process,” said Jenny Cohen, Temple Sinai’s social justice coordinator. “Even though it has been eight years, her asylum hearing hasn’t happened.”

Following the film screening, attendees took part in a panel discussion with the film’s director, Gabrielle Ewing; the featured attorney; and two other immigration policy experts, moderated by Royce Murray, the former assistant secretary for border and immigration policy at the Department of Homeland Security.

The two-hour program was “a little bit film and more discussion,” according to Cohen. It was open to the community, including other faith groups who helped spread the word.

Rabbi Hannah Goldstein of Temple Sinai said that through the Davis Center, the shul community’s goal is to educate its members and encourage them to act on current issues.

“A film is a great, emotional way of connecting with a personal story and understanding something in one particular instance,” Goldstein said. “We also wanted it to be a chance for us to learn more about the issue and what’s going on.”

This screening marks the second iteration of Davis Center Docs. “We had a lot of success in the fall with a documentary screening that we did on reproductive rights,” Cohen said.

She added that the community knew they wanted to show a film on immigration.

“For us as a temple, this completely aligns with our commitment to social justice and compassion and educating our community,” said Lee Levitt, Temple Sinai’s executive director.

Immigration rights are an issue that Levitt and Goldstein both feel is deeply tied to Jewish values and Jewish identities.

“This is a particularly difficult time in our country,” Goldstein said. “There’s such resonance, both from a biblical perspective of welcoming the stranger, of seeing yourself in the story of someone who is a stranger in a strange land, … and in the more contemporary, historic sense that so many of our families came to this country from places where we needed to leave, and we needed a place where we could be safe and where we could flourish.”

The immigrant story is a “very personal” one for many in the Jewish community, she said, which underscores the need to learn about it.

“Education is a way of getting people activated on an issue,” Goldstein said. “A lot of our immigration work actually was renewed and reinvigorated after a group of our congregation went down to the [U.S.-Mexico] border last year. They went on a trip to [El Paso] and visited Juárez.”

That group returned to D.C. “really fired up” and ready to act, according to Goldstein.

“Education and learning people’s stories and experiences does spur us to act, and it helps us feel connected to the stories of people,” she said. “It helps us remember and humanize those stories and get to work.”

Senior Rabbi Jonathan Roos and his wife led nine congregants on a 2018 trip to a Georgia detention center to witness the conditions and visit detainees, then share their experiences with the temple community. Inspired by that trip, one of the participants, Cam Crockett, a family law attorney, helped pass legislation allowing those in fear of detention or deportation to appoint a standby guardian for their minor children. The Maryland law amended and expanded the current standby guardianship law to cover parents who were at risk of “adverse immigration action.”

Crockett also created the nonprofit organization the Standby Guardianship Project to educate immigrants about this new law and assist them in appointing guardians.

“We have an amazing congregation of incredibly smart, connected people,” Goldstein said. “Sometimes, an individual’s outcome is something that can [make a difference], like Cam, who ended up doing this incredible work.”

The film screening goes hand in hand with the Temple Sinai community’s continued commitment to supporting immigrants. In December 2025, the community began helping a family resettling in D.C. from Afghanistan.

“We have a group of people who are really actively working on getting them connected and settled in our area,” Goldstein said.

Another group focuses on standby guardianship training, which allows parents to designate a person to care for their children if the parent becomes disabled, detained or deported.

“[The group] works with a local clinic that works with undocumented people to help make sure that they have the documentation they need,” Goldstein said. “There’s a lot of work happening through our congregation on these issues.”

She added that social justice is a collective effort.

“We have the opportunity to work together to make a difference, whether it’s through direct service, at a time when … there are people who are afraid to leave their houses; sometimes it’s food delivery and making sure people have what they need, … or advocating on the Hill against ICE funding from the federal government,” Goldstein said.

Cohen, too, hopes that the film inspires congregants, giving them “motivation to act in some way.”

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