Educational Resources
Whether through Jewish sources, holiday celebrations, or generally building your understanding of refugee issues, we hope you find these resources meaningful and useful.
Resources for Contemporary Issues
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Reading Ezra in an Age of Mass Deportations
The biblical book of Ezra contains the Jewish legal, moral, and structural foundations that were used to justify the deportation of a portion of non-citizens fully integrated into a community. This in-depth text study with commentary from contemporary rabbinic voices explores competing values and moral questions raised in how we construct our sense of national identity.
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Resources for Jewish Holidays
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The High Holidays
Every High Holiday season, join HIAS in working to create a more just world in which refugees and asylum seekers can rebuild their lives in safety and with dignity. Through our shared values of welcome, justice, empathy, partnership, courage, and resilience, we welcome the stranger and protect the refugee.
Resources for the High Holidays -
Sukkot
Each year, we recreate the huts in which our Israelite ancestors found refuge after escaping slavery in Egypt and wandering in the desert for 40 years. Sukkot allows us time to recognize our own fragility and reminds us that, for so many, shelter remains impermanent.
Resources for Sukkot -
Passover
On this holiday when we remember the Jewish people’s journey to freedom, we know that our freedom is inextricable from those of all others fleeing from violence and toward safety. The HIAS Haggadah is full of readings and stories which connect the foundational liberation story of the Jewish people with the reality of the refugee experience in the 21st century.
Resources for Passover
More Resources
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Tisha B’Av Resource
This text study juxtaposes texts from Eicha (the Hebrew name for the book of Lamentations), with its graphic descriptions of a conquered Jerusalem, with stories and images from Kabul as it fell to the Taliban.
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Ruth, Naomi, and the Refugee Experience
The Book of Ruth tells the story of refugees. The first refugees we learn about are Naomi, Elimelech, and their sons, who flee Bethlehem during a time of famine. Their need is so great that they go to the land of Moab, the historical enemies of the Israelites. The family is forced by circumstance to migrate to a place of uncertain welcome and perhaps even mortal danger.
Learn about Ruth, Naomi, and the Refugee Experience -
Refugee Torah
Readings from Jewish scriptures and wisdom sources that talk about how we should think about receiving guests and refugees.
Refugee Torah -
“For you were strangers in the land of Egypt” Peoplehood Papers 19
Peoplehood Papers 19 sets out to explore the Jewish responsibility to refugees in the 21st century in the context of Jewish history, legacy and commitment to Torah and Jewish values. We very intentionally explored the issue through the eternal yet very present Jewish lens: "For you were strangers in the land of Egypt."
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Rosie and Warda Children’s Book
This book, aimed at children in grades 1-3, seeks to highlight the important contributions and cultural differences that refugees bring to our communities as well as our responsibility to welcome them.
Rosie and Warda and the Big Tent -
Gishur Passover Holiday Resource (English)
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Gishur Shabbat Resource (English)
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Gishur Sukkot Resource (English)