All Stories

Feb 3, 2015

A Crash Course on the Syrian Refugee Crisis

A twist of fate (and timing) led to me spending my first week as Policy Counsel for HIAS in Jordan as a member of a delegation from Refugee Council USA. The trip, which was intended as a chance to learn about resettlement for Syrian refugees, became my crash course in the realities of the Syrian refugee crisis.

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Feb 3, 2015

Scholarships Offer Hope to IDPs in Georgia

Three years ago, Natia Kalandia's dream of becoming a psychologist seemed like just that, a dream. She had passed her university entrance exams, but following the death of her father and with her mother unemployed, there was no money to pay for tuition. Today, thanks to a scholarship from HIAS, Natia is back at Tbilisi’s Ilia State University and making progress toward her degree.

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Feb 1, 2015

Reciting the Shehecheyanu in Uganda

I have recited the Shehecheyanu prayer more times than I can remember. Often I mutter the words in a perfunctory manner as part of a holiday blessing. Sometimes tears stream down my cheeks as I recite the blessing in a moment of great joy. But never have the words carried the meaning that they did when I recited the prayer during a recent visit to a HIAS-run support group for young Congolese refugees in Kampala, Uganda.

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Jan 26, 2015

What Does Restoring Dignity Look Like?

What Does Restoring Dignity Look Like? By Sarah Baradaran, Refugee Policy Intern, HIAS-DC Jan 26, 2015 Visiting with African refugees in Nairobi, Kenya. (HIAS) Kenya is home to more refugees than any other country in Africa. Hundreds of thousands of refugees reside there in camps and urban slums, and originate from various African conflicts of […]

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Dec 29, 2014

Refugee Gives Thanks This Holiday Season

For many Americans the holiday season is full of long-honored traditions. But for refugees living in the U.S., this time of year brings a host of brand new experiences and insights about American culture.

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Dec 29, 2014

Asylum Seekers Deserve Better

Asylum Seekers Deserve Better Dec 29, 2014 In an op-ed published December 28, 2014 in The San Antonio Express-News, HIAS Vice President for Policy and Advocacy Melanie Nezer argues the U.S. government should end the practice of housing asylum seekers, especially mothers and children, in detention centers.

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Dec 23, 2014

Lev Golinkin on “A Backpack, a Bear and Eight Crates of Vodka”

Lev Golinkin, author of the memoir "A Backpack, a Bear and Eight Crates of Vodka," discusses his family's 1989-90 journey from Ukraine to the U.S. during an appearance at HIAS headquarters in New York City.

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Dec 18, 2014

Washington Jewish Week Profiles HIAS

Washington Jewish Week Profiles HIAS Dec 18, 2014 A December 18, 2014 article in Washington Jewish Week (later published in its sister publication Baltimore Jewish Times) profiles the "rebranding" of HIAS and the recently announced relocation of staff to Silver Spring, Maryland.

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Dec 16, 2014

HIAS Ecuador Shows Their Team Spirit

HIAS Ecuador Shows Their Team Spirit Dec 16, 2014 (HIAS) HIAS Ecuador staff take a break to show some team spirit during annual national training, which took place this past week in the Cumbaya Valley, east of Quito. 130 staffers from all nine cities where HIAS operates attended the event to receive training focused on […]

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Dec 11, 2014

Meeting the Schooling Needs of Unaccompanied Central American Children

Now that the Obama administration has taken action on immigration relief for millions of immigrants in the U.S., the President’s attention should turn to the more than 66,000 unaccompanied children—mostly from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador—who were apprehended crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in the past 12 months.

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