Aiding Refugees & Other Immigrants: Getting Started

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refugee meeting

Last Sunday evening (March 5) , a group of concerned Shomrei members met to explore what Shomrei as a community could do to help refugees and immigrants in our area.

Why did people come to the meeting?

Immigrants are the lifeblood of our country. If we betray immigrants, we betray ourselves.

I’m a descendant of an immigrant. The way this country accepted my family, that’s the way we should be accepting these immigrants. 

I want to do something locally to help folks feel like they belong. 

What if someone told me that my family couldn’t come? 

Behind all the headlines, there are individuals. 

I have to stand up for people who cannot stand up for themselves. 

Having lost so many relatives during the Holocaust, I keep thinking what I would have done back then if I were a Jew, or if I were not a Jew. 

I’ve learned not to take anything for granted. We cannot assume that someone else is taking care of the people who are coming here. 

I came to listen.  

The meeting began with a D’var Torah by Rabbi Greenstein: Egyptians became heard-hearted in their fear of the other (us!) and we were enslaved. Our response should be to open our hearts so that we will be able to treat others as we want to be treated.

Andy Silver and Nick Levitin shared with us what they have learned thus far: 85,000 people entered the refugee program last year after being vetted by the United Nations and U.S. government agencies. There are no government resettlement programs. Rather our government hands off responsibility to volunteer agencies such as HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), CWS (Church World Service), and IRC (International Rescue Committee). These agencies in turn hand off responsibility to local groups. Andy and Nick found several such groups in our area. A group of three synagogues in Maplewood and South Orange are providing assistance to two families. One World One Love, a group founded by a single determined individual, has assisted at least seven families. B’nai Keshet started a Syrian Supper Club, that serves both as a cultural exchange and a source of income for the women who cook the dinners. This latter is crucial as refugees receive limited cash assistance ($925 per family member, which is supposed to last 3 months!) from our government and finding work in New Jersey is not easy.

The possibility was raised that Shomrei could assist a family to resettle. This would be a serious and sustained commitment – like parenthood, if we commit to this, we cannot subsequently decide that we are no longer interested. Is this the best action for our community to take? Or should we join existing efforts in the area, at least temporarily, to learn what’s involved and gauge what our community is able to do.

Our next step is more fact finding – making calls to various organizations to find out what is involved and what resources are available. We’ll be meeting again on Sunday, April 2, at 7:00 pm to review what we’ve learned and decide on a course of action. To-date more than 40 of our members have indicated strong interest in participating in this work. Please join us.

Thank you to Nick Levitin and Andy Silver for starting this conversation.

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