Before he became Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at the Department of Homeland Security, León Rodríguez was the grandchild of Jews who fled anti-semitism in Poland and Turkey. “At the end of the day, refugees and refugee families are just like us, except in much more difficult situations,” Rodríguez says in an exclusive video interview.
Before he became Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at the Department of Homeland Security, León Rodríguez was the grandchild of Jews who fled anti-semitism in Poland and Turkey. “At the end of the day, refugees and refugee families are just like us, except in much more difficult situations,” Rodríguez says in an exclusive video interview.
Canada, our neighbor to the north, has roughly one tenth the population of the United States. Yet Canada has welcomed over 26,800 Syrians since November 2015, while the United States has admitted less than 2,000. But some in Washington want to do something about that.
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.”
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