Through our network of local resettlement partners, HIAS welcomes resettled refugees and helps them build their lives in communities across the United States.
Newly-arrived refugees experience their first Thanksgiving celebrations, thanks to events held by HIAS resettlement partners HIAS Pennsylvania and JFCS Pittsburgh.
When Mohammed and his family arrived in the U.S. last year after being evacuated from Afghanistan, they were assigned to a Welcome Circle: nine volunteers from a Baltimore-area synagogue tasked with helping them settle into a new life. The experience proved to be transformational for everyone involved.
Wali Ahmadzai is building a new life — and a new business — in Florida with the help of HIAS affiliate Gulf Coast JFCS. But nearly a year after arriving in the U.S., he is one of thousands of Afghan evacuees still unsure when or how they will gain permanent legal status.
In the year since the fall of Kabul, HIAS has resettled over 4,300 Afghans through the tireless efforts of its staff, resettlement partners, and volunteers. But the work to ensure that Afghan evacuees are able to build new lives in the U.S. is not finished yet.
Good news may be on the horizon for Afghan evacuees who came to the U.S. following the Fall of Kabul nearly one year ago: the newly-introduced, bipartisan Afghan Adjustment Act (AAA) would provide a clear pathway to permanent status for those still in legal limbo.
In 1985, Ken Burns interviewed two 10-year-old boys on the boardwalk in Brighton Beach for a film about the Statue of Liberty. Nearly 40 years later, those two boys, Alexander and Yevgeny Vindman are speaking out in support of refugee resettlement in a new Ken Burns/New York Times short.