Jewish Values and History

USA Today: World Must Recommit to Refugees

Sep 19, 2016

Ahead of this week's refugee summits, HIAS President and CEO Mark Hetfield took to the pages of USA Today to argue that, “now is the time for the world to recommit to the ideals and promises of the Refugee Convention.”

50+ Synagogues and Jewish Organizations Hold #JewsforRefugees Assembly in New York

Sep 15, 2016

NEW YORK -- On Wednesday evening, more than 50 synagogues and communal organizations and over 200 individuals representing New York’s Jewish community came together in support of refugees. Participants in the #JewsforRefugees...

Ben Saw Refugees on TV and Wanted to Help. What He Learned Next Changed Everything.

May 31, 2016

Svitavsky immigrated from St. Petersburg, Russia with her family in 1977. Like many refugees fleeing the Soviet Union at that time, they came with help from HIAS. Yet somehow the topic never came up with her children, who had no idea about their mother’s own refugee story until her son Ben brought up the topic himself.

Jewish Week: Yom HaShoah, Anne Frank and Refugee Security Checks

May 05, 2016

"As we commemorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, we suddenly transition from Passover, the ancient holiday which commemorates the refugee experience, to honoring the memory of the six million Jews who perished because they were not able to flee," writes Mark Hetfield in The Jewish Week.

To Remember and Protect: Yom Ha’Shoah and the Global Refugee Crisis

May 04, 2016

Keeping the story of Passover alive as we move into the day on which we are told “never to forget” our people’s more recent encounter with unconscionable evil means ensuring that what happened to the Jewish people does not happen to others. We can do this by becoming part of the American Jewish movement in support of refugees.

The Forward: How To Talk About Refugees at Your Passover Seder

Apr 14, 2016

Today there are 60 million people who have left everything they know behind, and fled in search of safety. Every day, an additional 40,000 flee their own Pharoahs — from Syria, Honduras, Afghanistan, Sudan, Colombia, Myanmar, Somalia, Ukraine; the list goes on and on.

This Passover, Show Your #SupportForRefugees

Apr 06, 2016

This Passover, HIAS is partnering with Repair the World on a campaign to build awareness, foster dialogue, and inspire action among Jewish young adults. Together, we have created substantive resources designed to help young people launch meaningful discussion about the global refugee crisis within a Jewish framework during a Seder or Shabbat dinner.

A Bar Mitzvah Project, with an Emphasis on the Mitzvah

Dec 21, 2015

Zachary Raney came home from Rosh Hashanah services at Judea Reform Congregation in Durham, North Carolina with a light in his eyes. His rabbi, Larry Bach, had given a sermon about the refugee crisis in Syria and how thousands of children were being affected. As Jews, Rabbi Bach said, we have an obligation to help.

Why World Refugee Day is a Jewish Holiday

Jun 20, 2015

It is impossible to avoid the stories of massive human displacement from Burma, Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, and Afghanistan, and hordes of boat migrants dying in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. There was a time when refugees were a front-page issue for the American Jewish community. That is no longer the case, and we must do better.

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