Through our network of local resettlement partners, HIAS welcomes resettled refugees and helps them build their lives in communities across the United States.
In preparation for May 11, when the Biden Administration will finally end the Trump administration’s policy of expelling asylum seekers under the pretext of a public health measure known as Title 42, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State today announced what they described as “regional migration management measures.”
Last April, Eduard Levit and his family had just arrived in Warsaw, Poland, having fled their hometown of Kharkiv, Ukraine for their safety. One year later, they are celebrating their first Passover in their new home of Portland, Oregon, after being resettled by the ShalomPortland Welcome Circle.
Leaders of the Jewish community and guests gathered to celebrate the coming together of HIAS and JCORE (the Jewish Council for Racial Equality) to form a new entity which will lead the Jewish response on issues of asylum, refugees, and racial equality in the United Kingdom.
The number of HIAS Welcome Circles in the United States has just reached 100. And there are more to come.
HIAS Welcome Circles are part of the private sponsorship model that allows for groups of individuals to independently raise funds and directly provide essential assistance to refugees.
A sewing machine that once belonged to a family HIAS resettled in Venezuela in the 1950s is now, by coincidence, being used by present-day HIAS clients in the country.
In the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, St. Louisans from three faith communities came together to welcome a family of evacuees and help them get settled in the United States.
The Biden administration’s new Welcome Corps initiative represents a breakthrough in advancing private refugee sponsorship in the United States — but is by no means the first program of its kind in North America. The American initiative, according to HIAS President and CEO Mark Hetfield, in fact drew inspiration from a similar program in Canada.
HIAS, the international Jewish humanitarian organization that provides critical services to forcibly displaced people, is organizing the fifth annual Refugee Shabbat to take place February 3-4, 2023. The initiative encourages Jewish congregations, community organizations, and individuals across the United States and around the world to dedicate a Shabbat experience to raising awareness about the global displacement crisis, and to reaffirm support for refugees and asylum seekers and take action at a time when the right to seek asylum is being severely abridged in the U.S. and around the world.