fbpx How Your Community Can Help Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers | Reconstructing Judaism

How Your Community Can Help Immigrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Article

What are concrete ways that Reconstructionist affiliates can get involved with the immigration issue? How can communities aid immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers?

We asked Rebecca Kirzner, campaigns director at HIAS, a historically Jewish organization that is one of the leading refugee resettlement organizations in the United States.  Kirzner spoke at the 2018 Reconstructing Judaism Convention, on a panel called “Welcoming the Stranger: A Jewish Value and a Reconstructionist Practice.” She is also married to Reconstructionist Rabbi Alanna Sklover, the new spiritual leader of Or Hadash in Fort Washington, Pa.

“With the global refugee crisis larger than at any point in human history – and with the erosion of both the refugee and asylum programs, it is critical for American Jews to take a stand, based in our community’s values and history,” said Kirzner.

Here are eight steps she suggested communities can take.

  1. Join the HIAS Welcome Campaign: The Welcome Campaign is made up of more than 430 congregations who are taking action for refugees through advocacy, volunteering, education, and fund raising. Welcome Campaign communities receive updates and newsletters about current events and ways to act.
  2.  Advocate for Refugees: HIAS encourages Reconstructionist affiliates to join its August in-district advocacy campaign, and to set up a meeting with the appropriate member of Congress. HIAS can provide talking points, training, and resources to equip communities to make the most effective case for refugees and asylum seekers.
  3. Organize a delegation to the Border:  HIAS can work with congregations to plan delegations to the border to volunteer with our partner organizations.  Here are guidelines for setting up volunteer delegations and pro bono legal delegations for attorneys.
  4. Take Action for Asylum Seekers at the Border:  HIAS is keeping an updated list of recommended ways to advocate, volunteer and more. This list will change frequently, so be sure to check back.
  5. Educate your Community: HIAS has a range of educational materials available for congregations, including “do-it-yourself” program guides, text studies, and Jewish holiday resources.
  6. Provide Support for newly arriving refugees: HIAS recommends contacting immigration and refugee agencies in your local community to inquire about what type of support would be helpful. Many congregations are providing direct support to refugee or asylum seeker families.
  7. More suggestions for involvement can be found on HIAS’ Take Action page, as well as in the Jews for Refugees Facebook group. These sites are updated frequently.
  8. Consider becoming a sanctuary synagogue. Check out this collection of Jewish texts, as well as this guide to the New Sanctuary Movement, provided by the T’ruah: Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.

According to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, there are nearly 26 million refugees in the world today, with more than half under the age of 18. The vast majority of them will never set foot on American and Canadian shores. What can congregations do to help the vast majority of those affected by cataclysms such as the Syrian Civil War?

Reconstructionist Rabbinical College student Allyson Zacharoff suggests congregations consider joining the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees, where she works as coordinator of operations and multifaith strategy. Reconstructing Judaism is among more than 100 participating organizations. According to its website, the alliance “enlists the moral authority of the mobilizing power of religion and civil society to address the ongoing suffering of people affected by the Syrian crisis.”

Zachroff suggests that congregations looking to have a life-changing impact should consider supporting the alliance’s Fund a Container Program. The program enables communities to pay the cost of shipping a container filled with life-saving supplies and to track its progress from packing to its arrival in Syria.

Assistant Director of Media and Development Communications, Reconstructing Judaism

Related Resources

News and Blogs

Responding to antisemitism by growing community, deepening commitments and building coalitions

On Sunday Oct. 28, 2018 — one day after the deadliest day in American Jewish history — I mourned with members of Congregation Dor Hadash. The Pittsburgh Reconstructionist congregation met in the Tree of Life building and had lost one of its own, Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz (z”l). Another member, Dan Leger, clung to life. Virtually every member of the congregation had gathered in solidarity. People were understandably raw, numb and devastated. Yet, in their commitment to mutual support, I was reminded of the awesome power of Jewish community to cultivate resilience in the face of pain and threat, including violent antisemitism.

In these polarized times, discourse over how best to confront antisemitism has often been visceral and sometimes taken on hyperbolic tones. At Reconstructing Judaism, we believe there are several steps toward a vigorous and constructive fight against rising antisemitism.

News
News and Blogs

‘Love your neighbor as yourself’: How Torah is helping me process Derek Chauvin’s conviction

Many people have asked how I feel about the Chavin verdict. Whenever I struggle to find words, I’m grateful for the teachings in the Torah, and this week is no exception.

News
News and Blogs

'A Beat to Which We All Can Move’: A Call to Jews to Embrace the Pursuit of Racial Justice

From its very beginnings, the Jewish story is full of journeys. When it comes to racial justice work, the Reconstructionist movement is in the midst of a profound journey.

News
News and Blogs

Jews, Race, and Religion: An Online Lecture Series

Jewish experience offers a valuable entryway into the study of race. Jewish identities and experience complicate conceptions that are overly simplistic or that lack nuance. Jewish history illuminates both the difficulty and the imperative of grappling with race and racism. To deepen our understanding of race, we have organized a series of online talks that will bring leading scholars of race, religion and Jewish life to a broad public.

News
News and Blogs

Counting Every Vote

Many American Jews considering voting to be a mitzvah, a commandment. It is essential that every vote is counted so that every voice is heard and so that our full-throated democracy can flourish.

News
News and Blogs

Mourning, Recovering and Rebuilding

News
News and Blogs

Day of Learning on Homelessness Combined Learning With Action

Reconstructing Judaism’s 2020 New York Day of Learning: Jewish Response to Homelessness, combined deep learning and practical action to help those among us who are homeless.

News
News and Blogs

Welcoming a Guest Into a Sanctuary Congregation

“One who destroys one life destroys the entire world. One who saves one life saves an entire world.” This  dictum has new meaning to me since my congregation, Temple Beth Hatfiloh (TBH), welcomed our guest into physical sanctuary, making the commitment to provide housing and shelter for an asylum seeker who is at risk of deportation.

News
News and Blogs

Reconstructionist Affiliates, Rabbis Push for More Just Immigration System

Rooted in the Jewish textual tradition and lived experience, Reconstructionist communities are aiding immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers through direct service, education and advocacy.

News
News and Blogs

Rabbi Elliott Tepperman: Bringing a Community-Organizing Model to the Pulpit

Rabbi Elliott Tepperman’s vision of a synagogue: a community that sustains itself through prayer and Torah, while also “trying to be a powerful force for making change in the world.”

News
News and Blogs

Facing Death, Rabbinical Student Teaches Others About Living Life

Emet Tauber, a rabbinical student facing terminal illness, devoted his last days to supporting causes and institutions that he values — including affordable and accessible rabbinic education. 

News
News and Blogs

Evolve: Sowing the Seeds of Constructive Evolution

Reconstructing Judaism has just rolled out Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations with the intention of hosting difficult, groundbreaking conversations that are nevertheless mutually respectful and supportive. We invite you to visit Evolve and to join the conversations!

News
News and Blogs

Notes from the Border

Rabbi Deborah Waxman, president of Reconstructing Judaism, reports on her participation in the national leadership mission to the San Diego-Tijuana border organized by HIAS and the Anti-Defamation League.

News
News and Blogs

The Poor People’s Campaign, a National Call for Moral Revival

The RRA recently became a partner of the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC). In the last two weeks the PPC has coordinated rallies and acts of civil disobedience in over 30 state capitals, including the participation of over 15 RRA members. 

News
News and Blogs

Drawing Comfort from Community

Belonging connects us to something larger than our own individual experience. I belong to the Jewish people because claiming this connection enters me into a millennia-old conversation and joins me into community both vertical—all those who came before me and all those who follow—and horizontal—the Jews of today, in all our diversity.

News