It is utterly loathsome to see this kind of dehumanization and Holocaust denial from anyone. But from a rabbi?

Anne Frank and millions of Jews, Roma and other ethnic or religious groups were rendered stateless for the very purpose of deporting them to death camps. Anne violated the law by hiding from authorities in a secret annex concealed in their father’s office building. She was not in the Netherlands legally because the Nazis changed the laws.

Laws do not equate morality. They do not equate ethics. They represent control and power. Sometimes they are good. Often they are reprehensible.

The Holocaust was perpetrated by a regime that stripped millions of their citizenship, even in the nations that it invaded and occupied. This regime created laws that reinforced this otherizing and demonization in order to seize their property and annihilate them. And without passports or other documents, these people were trapped, unable to flee to other countries.

This is no different than what the Trump regime is doing (and other administrations, both Democrat and Republican, have done). They are dehumanizing people based on their colour, or accent, or immigration status. They are rendering them stateless for easy internment in their concentration camps. For easy disposal.

But this is the moral bankruptcy at the heart of Zionism. A political ideology which relies on ahistorical myths and supremacy, and which cannot recognize these simple facts because doing so unravels their narrative. And thus, it makes the only choice it has left, which is to support fascism.

If the Holocaust taught us anything, it is that papers and passports are all temporary and arbitrary based on who holds power. It taught us that no human being is illegal. And no excuse made by a ruthless and brutal regime will change those immutable facts.

Kenn Maurice Orfanos, January 2026