Who is this woman who joins the Jewish people, this woman whose story plays a central role in our Shavuot celebrations? Before Ruth joins the Israelite people and converts, she is a stranger.
World Refugee Day honors the courage, strength and determination of those who are forced to flee persecution, conflict and violence. We asked the refugee experts at HIAS, the oldest refugee protection organization in the world, to tell us which books moved them, inspired them and changed the way they thought about refugee issues.
“People here are still recovering from the last earthquake. To have two more, in a period of just a few hours, was really quite terrifying. People were distressed, both Ecuadorians and refugees here, but we are trying to be a pillar of support for people during this difficult time,” said Sabrina Lustgarten, Director of HIAS Ecuador.
In a letter to the editor published online on May 31 and in print on June 1 by the New York Times, HIAS President and CEO Mark Hetfield takes a critical look at the Obama administration's record on refugee protection.
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.
The fate of over 4 million immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers currently residing in the United States is now in the hands of the Supreme Court, writes HIAS Refugee Policy Intern Eden Siskind.
Born in Vienna in 1929 to a Jewish family, Kurt Shaffert and his family fled to America when he was only 10 years old. “When they arrived in New York, they really had nothing,” said Robin Shaffert, Kurt’s daughter. “He never forgot what that was like–and he never forgot the help that his family got from HIAS.”
In 1944, nearly 200,000 Crimean Tatars, a Turkic ethnic minority, were unjustly accused of aiding and abetting the Nazi regime and ordered by Joseph Stalin to be forcibly expelled from their homeland to remote areas of the Soviet Union. On May 18, 2016, Ukraine held ceremonies to remember the Crimean Tatar people who lost their homes and their lives.
In 1944, nearly 200,000 Crimean Tatars, a Turkic ethnic minority, were unjustly accused of aiding and abetting the Nazi regime and ordered by Joseph Stalin to be forcibly expelled from their homeland to remote areas of the Soviet Union. On May 18, 2016, Ukraine held ceremonies to remember the Crimean Tatar people who lost their homes and their lives.
Stories of the European refugee crisis continue to flood the headlines, but mass media seems to forget we have a refugee crisis in America, too. Since the beginning of fiscal year 2014, over 120,000 unaccompanied children have arrived at the U.S. border seeking protection from violence in Central America.
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