Topic: European Refugee Crisis

Nov 16, 2015

WASHINGTON—Mark Hetfield, president and CEO of HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit that protects refugees, released the following statement in response to the attacks in Paris and Beirut last week.

Oct 28, 2015

António Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told the audience at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. that this is a manageable problem for Europe, but “there is one condition for a problem to be manageable -- it must be managed.”

Oct 16, 2015

What happens to the refugees the U.S. accepts for resettlement here? A recent State Department briefing on the United States Refugee Admissions Program provides some valuable insight for those newly curious about the world of refugee resettlement.

Sep 21, 2015

“Increasing the total number of refugees from 70,000 to 85,000 for next year and to 100,000 for the year after is a nice symbolic gesture,” Mark Hetfield, the president of HIAS, said Sunday in a statement. “It is a baby step in the right direction. But it is not leadership.”

Sep 17, 2015

“The United States admits a million legal immigrants a year. Most are students, or come on tourist visas. Anyone who wishes us harm would not do it through the resettlement process,” Melanie Nezer tells Jewish Week.

Sep 16, 2015

"Jewish American groups, saying they can’t be bystanders as the worst refugee crisis since World War II unfolds, are joining Arab-American leaders in a critique of existing policies, which have sharply limited the numbers of refugees settled in the United States," The Washington Post reports.

Sep 11, 2015

HIAS and other refugee resettlement agencies are petitioning the Obama administration to resettle far more than the roughly 10,000 Syrians that the White House announced this week would be accepted, the Washington Post reports.

Sep 10, 2015

It is the first specific commitment the United States has made toward increasing its acceptance of refugees from the war-torn country. But refugee advocates and some members of Congress say taking in an additional 10,000 refugees does not go far enough toward addressing the humanitarian crisis triggered by the war, which has prompted a massive refugee influx into Europe.

Sep 10, 2015

Slideshow: The Refugee Crisis, A Dispatch from Vienna By Emily Russ, HIAS/RSC Austria Director Sep 10, 2015 I walked into the Westbahnhof train station and nothing appeared to be different. Tourists wheeled their bags past Starbucks and perfume shops, seemingly oblivious to the stress and confusion just one level above and below them. Meanwhile, thousands […]

Sep 10, 2015

For refugees, the 1951 Convention is Torah. We can get lost in arguing about its meaning and interpretation, but the guiding basic principles and values are very clear. Our obligations toward refugees are the same no matter who they are, no matter who we are, no matter what other countries are doing, or are not doing.