Update from the Shomrei Refugee Assistance Group

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As many of you know, our group has been assisting two brothers who escaped from Afghanistan during the American-led evacuation in the summer of 2021. The brothers were separated from their parents and four siblings, who were left behind in Afghanistan.

We now have fantastic news to report! Those six other family members have finally joined Sediq and Masih in New Jersey.  To top it off, the family (including Sediq and Masih) has now found two apartments in Montclair (with the help of Shirley Grill and HomeCorp).

This past weekend, the family moved into their two new apartments in Montclair with the assistance of Shomrei volunteers. 

The moves went extremely smoothly, thanks to all the volunteers and organizations that participated:

Shomrei members David Grill, Eric Feldman, Shai Feldman, Jonah Feldman, Mike Legman, Andy Silver, Andy Ely, Vicki Compter, Max Lefkowitz, and Alex Lefkowitz;

A friend of a friend of a friend, Fran Wong, who found a needed bed and other household items on FaceBook;

HOMECorp, Laptop Upcycle, IRC (International Rescue Committee), The Warehouse NJ, One World One Love, RAPNJ (Refugee Assistance Partners) – especially Executive Director Jill Segulin and Laptop Coordinator Ruth Li;

And, of course, the ringmaster of the entire operation, Shirley Grill!

If you’d like to assist in our continuing efforts to help the family settle in its new surroundings, please contact Andy (email hidden; JavaScript is required).

In addition, we are putting together a list of tutors to help the family learn English and, potentially, to assist the children in academic subjects.  We hope to offer both in-person and remote tutoring. The tutoring is being coordinated by Ruth Li at Refugee Assistance Partners (RAPNJ), which has been our partner for more than two years in providing assistance to this family, as well as to other refugees.  If you are interested in tutoring, please contact Ruth (email hidden; JavaScript is required).

Finally (for now), we would welcome contributions of Shoprite gift cards to assist the family with their food needs.  Please contact Andy (email hidden; JavaScript is required) to arrange for delivery of the gift cards.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

Regards,
Judith, Mike, and Andy

About the Refugee Assistance Group

In early 2017, Nick Levitin and Andy Silver started Shomrei’s Refugee Assistance Group in reaction to the massive influx of Syrian refugees to our area. The response from our group was and continues to be, overwhelming, enabling us to assist refugees from a wide variety of countries. However, the needs, too, are overwhelming; wars, natural disasters, and government repression and persecution continue to cause mass worldwide migrations of people, many seeking refuge in our region.

If you are interested in joining, or if you want more information, or would just like to be on our email list for updates about our activities, please contact one of the co-heads of our group:

Judith Antelman (email hidden; JavaScript is required)
Mike Legman (email hidden; JavaScript is required)
Andy Silver (email hidden; JavaScript is required).

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