Earlier this summer, TBE’s Immigration Justice Group was honored to be awarded the HIAS Trailblazer Pathways Award for its “extraordinary work helping people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes.” HIAS had been made aware of the 20 family units (71 individuals) who had been resettled by IJG volunteers over the past 8 years including new immigrants from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Algeria, Venezuela and Syria with the most recent resettlement of 4 Syrian families between September 2024 and January 2025, all of whom are immediate family to the Hayanis and Aljelous who were the first families the IJG resettled 8 years ago.
The HIAS letter notifying of the Award reads, in part:
At an unparalleled moment in human history with more than 120 million people who have had to flee their homes, you have embraced a central tenet of Torah to welcome the stranger. The attacks on immigrants of all statuses in the United States has made this year particularly difficult for those committed to these values. But in the face of such devastation, communities like yours represent the best of lived Jewish values.
The IJG and its leadership team (Michael Gilman, Debbie Gotbetter, Lina Musayev, Ed Shapiro, and Jessica Lasser) are now challenged by the changes in humanitarian parole programs instituted by the US government which pose a particular threat to the well-being of our Venezuelan and Ukrainian immigrant friends. For example, new rules for the program under which Venezuelans arrived have resulted in changes to their status, obstacles to applications for new statuses, such as asylum, and pauses in the processing (or revoking) of working papers resulting in their employers being unable to continue their employment. This has placed a strain on the New Americans Immigration Fund which has had to provide additional financial support to those who had achieved financial stability and independence. The situation has also complicated the ability to renew apartment leases where committing to a 12-month lease term becomes unrealistic given future unknowns. This past spring, the IJG participated in the filing of an amicus brief at the US Supreme Court along with other faith-based organizations in an effort to have the government hold to the commitments made to individuals under the terms of the programs which they had arrived here. The Court overruled the lower federal courts in Boston which had ruled in favor of these humanitarian parolees.
The IJG at TBE is now engaged in advocating for the immigrant community, protesting against those actions that contradict our Jewish values, and participating in the Dignity Not Deportation campaign sponsored by the Reform Movement’s Religious Action Center to protect the rights of new immigrants. The IJG hopes many of you will participate in these efforts when you receive calls to action in future communications.
