In 1923 HIAS sent my dad, Oscar S. Rosner, a newly-admitted young lawyer in New York City, to Germany to bring to America Jews living in a nation wracked by an unconscionable Versailles Treaty, by the early effects of hyper-inflation and by widespread street violence and rioting between communist and radical-leftist gangs and the beginnings of far-right nazi thugs and gangs. As a little boy I heard firsthand his stories about HIAS' quiet humanitarian work.
4
Somewhat encouraged by the 3 readers who marked up my previous post here, I figure I'm already ahead of Homer's Cassandra, who found nobody to believe her, so will re-iterate my warning to Jewish supporters of the facile conflation of two distinct subjects, opposition to illegal migrants and antisemitism.
To believe that, you also have to believe all the following people are antisemitic:
1. A large segment of American Jewish organizations:
https://www.jta.org/2018/05/15/news-opinion/united-states/jewish-groups-...
2. All Jewish supporters of president Trump or otherwise supporting American nationalism:
https://www.thenation.com/article/pittsburgh-shooting-result-trump-natio...
3. The entire government of Israel and of course its voters:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/07/13/anti-se...
Of course, you may go ahead and believe all of the above. But if you do, be warned that you are walking blindfolded towards a precipice. Mr Golinkin here has done us all a favor by distinguishing between pro-migrant HIAS and the Jewish community generally. Ignore the warning at your peril.
3
Many Americans are unaware of the fact that the US has been a haven for Jewish refugees and immigrants from all over the world since the 19th Century. Perhaps they live in places with no Jewish community, or don't notice that they even have one in their own town or city. Remaining ignorant of your neighbors weather they are of a minority racially or religiously simply adds to the cultural abyss.
I am saddened that these heart-felt comments mostly reflect the irrational political divide dogging our country today. Nothing is ever "either/or", "black or white". It is wrong-headed to blame Democratic or Republican American's, or the President of the United States, for abhorrent acts of extremists and the mentally deranged. It is a shame to use an act of deadly Antisemitism as an excuse to bash fellow Americans, whose different opinions may well have some validity. The fostering of nuance and brotherhood, not dogmatic political extremes, is the appropriate American and Jewish response to this tragedy. President Trump, in spite of his many shortcomings, actually models this for us by openly loving his Jewish family and by being one of the most rational, supportive and least politically motivated friends of the Jewish people in presidential history. This, in spite of the fact that he knows that most of us would never vote for him!
Sir,
I did not know of HIAS until this article. Thank You.
5
Sometimes I think that maybe we should require of anti-Semites that they give up everything in their lives that exists thanks to Jews. No more polio vaccines for them or their families (Jonas Salk and Alfred Sabin), or using aspirin or insulin for diabetes. No more antibiotics (Selman Waksman discovered Streptomycin and coined the word 'antibiotic'.) No more movies, symphony concerts, popular music or medical care - all of which were significantly influenced by Jews. No more singing "God Bless America or "White Christmas" - both composed/written by Irving Berlin. No more medical treatments based on advances in physics. No more wearing jeans (Levi Strauss), using color photography (Gabriel Lipman), or using sewing machines (Isaac Singer). The list, of course, goes on and on. Come on, haters, walk the walk.
28
@Caveat Emptor
They need to give up their cell phones and WAZE, all advances developed in Israel.
4
My grandparents, fleeing virulent anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia, came to the US in the 1920s with next to nothing. They married in this country and worked hard to provide for their children, including my parents. They became citizens. As a child, I listened to their histories as though they were fables. When I decided to visit Russia and the concentration camps as a tourist, they were aghast: Why would I want to go to a place they had escaped? Had they remained, I would likely not have survived the Holocaust during which I was born. In Russia, I met with Russia Jews whose identity cards termed them "Jews" rather than Russians. They, like my grandparents, suffered discrimination and harassment. Many of them were helped by HIAS to settle in the US. They, like my grandparents, sought a better life for their children. As our president seems to honor Russia's current dictator, would he allow these people to seek refuge in our country today?
18
I’m a holocaust survivor and a HIAS client of the late 1950’s. My mother and I were stranded as stateless refugees for 22 month before receiving a visa for the USA. With the help of HIAS we lived not in a refuge camp but with the civilian population.
I received three engineering degrees and were a member of the American society for my professional and retired life. Presently, I do various volunteer jobs.
HIAS receives large part of my annual charitable donation.
55
@Marianne (Erdos) a belated welcome and now a thanks for mentioning HIAS as a charitable destination. I think we all feel traumatized and helpless as individuals when confronted with these enormous humanitarian issues. I will now support HIAS. Thank you for that.
8
@Marianne (Erdos)
I could have written the first four lines of Marianne Erdos' comment. My story is identical. HIAS brought me to the United States in 1958 after having spent two years in Vienna, Austria, as a stateless refugee. Long an American citizen, I received a Master's Degree from Columbia University, was a productive member of the society of this country until my retirement.
8
Mr. Golinkin, before this weekend I had not heard of the HIAS. In reading your essay it is clear that the article's title is spot-on; this organization IS the best of America and Judaism. I am glad that your family make it here to the US and hope that the good work of HIAS will continue. Thank you.
12
Wow. That is such a powerful and beautifully narrated account. My daughter works settling refugees for a non-denominational faith-based group involving churches, synagogues, mosques, temples; I see the great work they do. She just reunited a Ukrainian family in fact. But, I also see some vocal bigotry in my own church, the few who are xenophobic and ignorant, particularly about people with brown skin. Now I know the simple answer for them: "Not because they are or aren't Christian, but because we are Christian". Thank you Mr. Golinkin.
87
Upworldly Global helps immigrants with professional credentials re-enter their chosen profession in the US. Had they existed when your Mother immigrated she could have possibly used her medical experience working in a hospital lab, a clinic, etc. Programs like UpGlo more than pay for themselves when these new Americans start paying taxes on their higher earnings. My condolences on your loss.
28
Half of my ancestry is Russian, but not Jewish. Fled Russia in 1919, then fled France when the Nazis invaded in 1940. My family was not personally helped by HIAS, but like many other commenters, I just made a donation. Both to honor the Pittsburgh victims, and to defy the perpetrator of yesterday's crime.
51
Decades ago, my father, having retired, realized he was bored, and decided to get busy. He settled on charity work, and somehow made his way to HIAS. Dad had learned Russian in the Army, and in his last years he helped newly arrived Russian immigrants stock their refrigerators, negotiate apartment leases, obtain driving licenses; things of that nature. He said HIAS was the Lord's secret weapon.
His funeral looked like some big shot at the U.N. had died. A rabbi spoke the prayer for the dead at his grave. We were honored.
My father wasn't Jewish.
136
@Taz
As the Jewish prayer says, when a person has just died: May his soul be bound up with the living.
4
This is what our country, and world needs. Bless your father.
5
I hope many readers will add HIAS to the organizations they support with financial donations each year.
32
The gunman that shot those people in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh Saturday is a madman, and will be held accountable.
What I'm worried about is whether the hate in our hearts will be reckoned with, and held in account for the potential evil we can and will do to others, along with ourselves.
I'm glad that the author of this article is here in the US. We need more of people like Lev Golinkin, and less of people like the deranged killer in Pittsburgh Saturday.
17
HIAS helped my spouse’s great grandparents settle in this country when they had no one to turn to for a place to live or food more than a century ago. Now these immigrants descendants are college educated professionals who have given much to this country, their communities, and their families. In six generations they have become home owners, tax payers, business owners, job creators, educators, community educators, and more. Let the record stand well for what HIAS has done from the last to the present.
33
thank you for this moving, eloquent and educational piece. I’m embarrassed to say that today is the first time i had heard of HIAS and am deeply moved by their work. Mark Hetfield’s comment is truly beautiful and i hope that as a fellow jew, i can be guided by his directive and strive to do the right thing for everyone that comes across my path.
I too am sorry for your loss. Your mother sounds like a very strong and resilient person. I’m sure you are very proud of her as she was of you.
23
We need to confront extremism where it's exists, in all the comment sections of our major media Outlets. This is where people grow their extremism. Where they are anonymous, until they act out. Al Jezera was so bad at this they had to cancel their comment section. It would have been better if they had confronted their extremists.
7
Thank you for expressing this much better than I am able to—-We must help these “others” in need to honor our own immigrant ancestors, to help these desperate people who could be us, and to do what is best for America. My own experience with HIAS, helping out a friend, is more evidence of the wonderful work they do.
17
This is a great story! Thank you for sharing and illuminating us!
11
Thank you so much for this. I am sorry for your loss. I appreciate your bringing HIAS to the forefront in such a meaningful way. HIAS helped my grandfather’s family settle in Bay City, Michigan in the 1890s.
15
My grandmother, a Jewish immigrant at the turn of the 19th century, worked for many years at an organization called NYANA - the New York Association for New Americans. This was in the period before, during and after WWII. Her work was much the same then as HIAS’s mission is now. I will remember always the stories she told of the families she helped and will treasure the small gifts of gratitude she was presented by people who she aided.
The need for immigrant aid is ongoing and organizations which do the hard of settling and integrating our newest residents should be applauded, not reviled.
24
This article and David Shribman's are two must-reads as we mourn the loss of life to hatred. Beautifully written.
I will always remember Mark Hetfield's remark: We decided to help, not because they are Jewish, but because we are Jewish.
Thank you, Lev Golinkin
37
@Hope Madison Yes Hope, HIAS is a magnificent
organization and it is beyond strange that an act of
such horror places them in the “headlines” today.
HIAS helped Jews at the turn of the 20th century as they immigrated to the USA, continuing through decades to help Jewish refugees who fled tyranny. At the present time they are in the forefront of helping refugees, regardless of their race, religion or nationality. I was involved with HIAS when they helped refugees from the Soviet Union, Iran, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The people were in need of just about everything and HIAS was there for them. My grandparents were helped by HIAS when they immigrated to the USA from Poland in 1903. HIAS is personal for me and as a nation of immigrants it is likely personal for multitudes. Thank you Lev for your words.
17
@Hope Madison
Would that we would all respond that we helped not because they were human beings but because we were human beings.
Have we who fought WWII and liberated German concentration camps forgotten the horrors of the 20th century?
What country is this?
19
Can we stop pretending that it's "both sides?"
White supremacists commit political violence. The technical name for political violence is terrorism.Today's NY Times has a white supremacist who thinks Trump doesn't go far enough shooting 11 in a synagogue. It also recounts three massacres at black churches, with two of those committed by white supremacists. Three out of four of these massacres were committed by white supremacists, while the fourth motive is unknown. Two out of four are by Trump supporters with MAGA hats.
Last year s column of white supremacists with torches shouting "Jews will not replace us,"' marched and beat up a handful of peaceful left activists. Trump called them fine people.
Just a few days ago Trump was mimicking a reporter being slammed to the ground, a crime Trump says probably got "my guy" elected.
Trump constantly calls for political violence. No one on the left is calling for political violence.
The right keeps accusing the left of metaphorical terrorism. There are no Democratic Mobs. There a handful left protesters yelling at Ted Cruz in a restaurant. Ted Cruz is a member of the Tea Party which came to power yelling and pushing and shoving at Democratic Town Halls.
Everyone in the Party of Trump is fully aware that Trump supports white supremacists. They love him for it. it's only a secret to corporate media and centrist Democrats who would rather compromise with a party full of tax cheats, liars and terrorists than their own base.
48
White Supremacists, ISIS, and the Taliban share a central core issue: hatred against Judaism.
This November, a vote for Donald Trump's minions,
is a vote for hatred, intolerance, violence and ignorance.
21
Can somebody please explain how white nationalists whose ideologies are more in line with what hezbollah wants to do with the Jewish state also Trump supporters? He openly pushes a "Zionist" agenda through Adelson. How can two groups so diabolically opposed operate in the same conservative tent?
9
@Arsenic.It's really a wonder how antisemitism comes from both the right and the left. Somehow this mental disease seems to unify people on "both sides". On the so-called left, Israel can be blamed for being tough on Muslims, while white nationalists will blame Jews for being generous to Muslims.
Sir I didn't know HIAS before Pittsburgh shootings. I read I learned and I donated.
I am happy at least that I can oppose that anti-Semite with my little donation. I stand by with righteous.
Thank you
35
You write beautifully. You brought tears to my eyes. May your mother rest in peace. May all those who were killed yesterday rest in peace. And now I am going to go donate to HIAS.
38
Thank you for sharing.
5
Thank you for bringing to light what HIAS stands for and explaining their compassionate work with refugees here in America.
"It symbolizes America ---Judaism-- at its best."
What a startling contrast with the shocking actions of the absolute worst human being who has ever occupied the WH.
On the same day of this nation's most heinous attack on Jews in U.S history, Trump goes forward with his rally with farmers and jokes he nearly canceled speech due to a ‘bad hair day’.
16
A very fine column.
8
Do you know any black African American Christians who live in Pittsburgh?
What do they think and know about and do they have any contact with the white European Jewish American community in Pittsburgh?
4
Anti-immigrants, anti-Semites, nationalists and other degenerates do not have the cognitive ability to think through complex issues, apply logic, or remain connected to the real world. What they display is an inhuman capacity to hurt others with full justification in their heads.
We have known this for ever.
But, the current hypocrisy and deceit does not fully acknowledge that anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic violence occurs with full (if implicit) support from well-funded and deceptively large section of the republican party. How can Jewish people serve with this president? Have they no decency?
Republicans will succeed in positioning all this as a left wing conspiracy of the deep state. The fact that the likes of Mike Savage, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter have an audience - - suggests that the country itself is anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic. Otherwise they would exist only on fringe web, and not welcome in polite society. But they are the stalwarts, the stars, the pillars of the republican party and its hate machine.
No, of course all republicans are not anti-immigrant, anti-Semite nihilists. But all anti-immigrant, anti-Semites are republican.
Like millions of others, I fully intend to frequent Jewish community centers without fear. I am just not ready to go to candle light vigils some are organizing. All I want to do is pray alone that people come out to vote, and sweep the haters out of the total political power they enjoy today.
39
Not Jewish. Not a refugee. In tears.
Thank you.
41
America cannot destroy its constitution - inclusive of free speech and gun rights all because of a few crazy fringe people. The loss of fellow Jews is horrendous and frightening as we are always the people that fanatics target.
America is a beacon to the world for all human beings. Dictators and Despot Governments want you to slowly loose your freedoms. Stay strong, stay resolved - democracy is worth fighting for, worth dieing for. Raise your voice and don’t let fanatics destroy your democracy.
9
The caravans are not coming from the socialist countries Republicans love to hate. They are not coming from Nicaragua or Venezuela.
The caravans are a direct result of U.S. policy.
The caravans are coming from our closest allies in Central America, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. These countries are our capitalist "success" stories that long ago succumbed to pressure from from the U.S. and global trade organizations to embrace the American Consensus.
These countries fully implemented Supply Side Economics as we prescribed. They slashed regulations on mining and other extractive industries. They slashed taxes on the global rich and their mega rich shareholders to attract direct foreign investment. To pay for it they slashed social safety nets and investments in the People, cutting healthcare, education, infrastructure etc., by putting law and order in service to corporate profits instead of justice for the People, let gangs with political connections flourish, while human rights and labor activists are terrorized and murdered.
We constantly hear from the right that socialism is disaster and capitalism is prosperity, but women doubt pick up their children and join caravans to foreign countries for the fun of it. They are fleeing gang violence.
The policies of Trump will create caravans leaving the U.S
GOP policies created political refugees who have a right to apply for political asylum under U.S. law. HIAS helps those people follow the law to safety.
13
I had never heard of HIAS until yesterday. But I have known of the unselfish support of Jewish organizations and individual Jews for those other faiths—and of their solidarity with other groups subjected to hate—since childhood.
As a little girl growing up in a closed-mind Christian household in small town Alabama, I vividly remember learning that men from the local synagogue rode with police officers on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so that more officers could have time off to celebrate the Christian holiday with their families. And as a teenager in the sixties I will never forget Jeannie, one of the most popular girls in my class, quietly refusing to participate in white outrage against school integration, explaining that her parents—her ”people”—had had to flee their home country to escape extermination and knew firsthand where hate leads.
Those gestures—relatively small, I suppose, in the great scheme of things (though emblematic, I have later learned, of Jewish belief and organizational outreach)—were both eye opening and heart expanding for this little Alabama girl. And I have often wondered in the many decades since why more protestants and more organizations of protestant Christianity—a religion that preaches universal love and a group that has itself suffered religious persecution—do not act in solidarity against hatred and in support of differing religious faiths the way Jews do.
19
@Steel Magnolia
I can't thank you enough for your comment.
And from the many fine comments I have read from you in the past, I would never have guessed that you had grown up in a "close-minded Christian home in small- town Alabama".
You thought for yourself and rose above all that and I admire you so much. Thank you for everything.
1
Beautiful statement. Bittersweet. Hopeful.
Irrelevant in today's Ec-America.
Emotion, fact, reality itself have no meaning in this conflict.
Early-stage totalitarians, Republicans, especially Trumpists don't recognize such things, respond to them with contempt, even pride they see through the vile charade.
Susan Collins, for example, is an early victim. Miraculously still aware of the import of her actions, their unpopularity and dire consequences, she is powerless to stop herself.
Republicans generally, evidenced by what we mistakenly refer to as party discipline, are moved only by the lock-step march of inhumanity and the need to lie eloquently to justify or explain themselves when things get a little hot.
Republicans and Trumpers hate people who are not them, not for political, economic, ideological or ethical reasons. They hate people who are not them.
In a classic totalitarian move, the Right now ratchets up its standards of mindless obedience. People formerly on the inside are cast out because they express some qualm or other, some new idea.
Your facts, your stories, your religion, your ethics have no positive valence here. The opposite. Its why 90+ per cent don't simply dismiss 'the media', they're suspicious and afraid, and pride themselves when they resist.
Democrats who persist in treating this as a civilized conflict of perspectives play the wrong game.
They don't need to worry about losing, they need to worry about survival.
5
In the 1980s I attended a university with a student body active in the “Free Soviet Jewry” movement. Many Fridays I joined their letter writing campaign: Dear Ambassador Dobrynin… Years later it was my great pleasure to attend a lecture by the now-free Natan Scharansky accompanied by his strong and constant wife Avital, happily now a mother.
For an undergrad sociology paper I interviewed senior citizens in an Irish-American neighborhood that was quickly changing color. A delightful couple in their 80s welcomed me to their home and shared their memories. We discussed the massive nearby Basilica, the heart of the community now being renovated after a century of use, the church my grandparents were married in. The lovely older lady commented, “They are making it nice for the Puerto Ricans.” None of these blue-eyed people looked at Latino newcomers and said, “Let me help my co-religionists who are fleeing poverty just as my ancestors did.” That made the example of the HIAS and similar organizations all the more powerful.
5
My entire family were Cuban refugees to the USA in the 1960s. Thank you for sharing this moving story with which I relate and telling us about HIAS. I was not aware of it until yesterday. But I am wholeheartedly in alignment with its mission. As you point out, it is not about helping those who are like us, it is about helping those who need help because that is who we are. There is no question that is not the sentiment of this President, or his acolytes. Perversely the MAGA mindset is the religion of xenophobia. I am convinced the most important sentiment within it is hatred of immigrants and minorities. We need to reclaim who we are, a nation of immigrants, by voting them out!
20
Mr Golinkin - first, condolences for your mother.
And thank you for finally dispelling this unceasing lament of "antisemitism" poisoning the air since this latest shooting. It's clear from your article that the shooter was incensed at this particular synagogue for hosting HIAS, a refugee-importing organization, and not for any reason relating to Judaism per se.
Perhaps the character of the imported refugees, and their subsequent behavior, has changed markedly in the years since your family arrived?
3
@Ecoute Sauvage:
According to what we read about the shooter's social media point of view, he was clearly anti-Semitic.
12
Thank you. I have always admired the Jewish survivor ethos. It helped me to feel human after years of torture and abuse in "protective" custody and gave me the hope that I might one day be free.
During the Obama administration I would get at least three and sometimes 7 or more emails from the Simon Wiesenthal Center each week warning about this or that danger to Jews and antisemitism rising much of it related to Obama admin policies or diplomatic endeavors. Since El Trumpo has been elected I have not gotten many emails from them at all. Less than one a month. That seems rather odd to me since El Trumpo has trucked in more bigotry than any president in my lifetime of nearly 60 years.
Then my mind turned to the recent habit of Israel and its supporter's to label anyone who criticizes her as an anti Semite. Which made me wonder if men like Mr. Bowers get to walk around and feel safe and comfortable because the normal folks who rightly object to the unfair and downright evil things the Israeli government does are being lumped into the same category as him. I hesitate to listen when I here a pro Israel person call someone an anti Semite when I know they also think of me as one for not approving of Israeli government policies.
I think it worth thinking about since Mr Bowers ideas are obviously dangerous and point to him eventually doing something like this. Maybe no one paid attention because of all the crying wolf we hear on such matters.
11
I am am a second generation American and grown child of a refugee who was also helped by HIAS. My father escaped Nazi occupied Austria at age 13, while nearly all the rest of the family was murdered at Aushwitz. When he arrived in 1938 as a refugee in the US, HIAS helped him with a little food, and setting him up with another teenager to help him learn English. At 18 he joined the US Army, and other Americans of his generation in the first wave to land on the beaches of Normandy. He survived again, though scarred for life.
With effort and some education thanks to the GI Bill, he went on to contribute to American technology companies, that helped put Americans on the moon, and lead the world in advanced technology, while also saddened by the glorification of guns he saw by some in America.
In some ways I followed in my father's footsteps, helping to contribute to US technology leadership in for 25 years, and now teaching high school students physics, engineering, and critical thinking skills to apply in their lives.
I am grateful to HIAS for the helping hand they extended to our family, and am happy to support them, particularly in memory of this weekend's tragedy. But the biggest beneficiary of HIAS's work to help refugees, is the United States. Thank you HIAS, and thank you refugee families for the generations of contributions you make to our country.
34
@Someone who actually cares The story would come out very differently if your family hailed from Honduras. These distinctions matter to many Americans.
1
I was not a refugee; just a wannabe immigrant about 45 years ago and HIAS assisted me to obtain the paperwork, medical exams, etc., that was required so I’d be granted permission (visa, green card, labor certification) to come here. Thank you HIAS. After I came, I paid back to HIAS what they spent on me in installments of about $15 a month (a rather trivial amount even 45 years ago).
13
As an Arab and Muslim American, this piece is a reminder of everything I love about this country.
Thank you Lev Golinkin and HIAS — love (and truth) will conquer hate.
50
This is beautiful. I'm sure your mom is proud of you, Mr Golinkin...certainly I am thankful for your persepctive and your mother's inspiring story.
5
HIAS is a wonderful organization. it is, among other things, a Jewish organization helping Muslim refugees. But, I ask, is it now or would it ever be, the other way around?
10
Thank you.
My church partners with Refugee One a wonderful organization with whom we share a long history.
We resettle people from all over the world of all faiths. Just before this president’s election we accepted a Syrian family. I was horrified as my brothers who were raised in the same church I was yelled “not THOSE people”
You cannot call yourself a follower of Christ if you do not accept the refugee.
This week Jesus’s admonition to remove the log in our own eye before we the speck we see in the eyes of the other rings true.
We must see how violent our own culture is and how we turn a blind eye to it over and over again.
How many more shootings of innocent people in schools, churches, synagogues, movie houses, waffle houses, newsrooms, concert venues, grocery stores until we see?
Let the scales fall from our eyes.
It is not the other that we should fear.
16
Emma Lazarus worked as a volunteer for HIAS starting in 1882, helping Russian Jews who were escaping pogroms. She helped raise money, set up English classes, and provide food and clothing.
A year later, she wrote "The New Colossus" in order to help raise funding for the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty.
HIAS is an important part of our nation's values.
15
Thank you for letting the world know of HIAS. I am not Jewish, but I am proud to say that some of my and my husband's closest and dearest friends are Jewish. This fine essay must speak to us Gentiles. What I already knew from our friends, their quest for social justice no matter one's race, ethnicity, religion, or gender, so many Americans remain deliberately ignorant of due to their own hateful prejudice and discrimination.
I was born and raised Catholic, but I no longer consider myself a believer in my Church and in the Christian religion at large. Yes, I believe in God and that Christ was a good and holy man who preached love and justice and mercy. But Christianity has failed miserably, most especially in its recent history. It now stands for everything that is the opposite of Christ's teachings as well as that of the Jewish Torah and Talmud.
Thank you, to those of the Jewish faith and culture for continuing your lead and example of how we humans are to treat each other as well as all of God's creation.
11
An American Jewish friend of mine, just out of an Ivy League university, came to Rome to work with HIAS.
He was in every respect the typical HIAS worker in the best sense. He was an absolutely wonderful human being, and wonderfully American and Jewish in his manner of being wonderful -- empathic, practical, modest, dignified.
He told me that the Rome office had been given the mission to redirect incoming Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe towards Israel, lest too many of them come to the US. He felt rather unhappy about that, for the sake of the Jewish refugees, and of the Palestinians who were being evicted from their homes to make room for incoming Jews...
5
It was sadly interesting how little the media doing first reports from Pittsburgh knew about HIAS -- but hopefully sadly they now know more.
4
I’d known nothing about HIAS; good for them, and thanks; thanks also to all the folks in Pueblas sin Fronteras and Amnesty International who are doing better than their best to help this tattered world.
6
I wrote an earlier comment but ran out of room.
I tried to argue that we should indeed support organizations like HIAS, which provides for Jewish and Muslim refugees. But there is a wider question which concerns immigration itself. At the same time as we help refugees of religious persecution, we need to be aware that the US has limited resources. Levels of immigration need to be set lower, so that we can provide a safety net for our own poor, even as we work to help third world countries (like Honduras and Guatemala) achieve lower birth rates and thereby raise living standards.
The problem is with denial. Donald Trump denies global warming, a ridiculous position. One can now take the Northwest Passage in summer months to traverse the northern coast of North America, a feat not possible a few years back. The reason is vanishing sea ice.
But Democrats are in denial about an even more fundamental fact, the impact of population growth on poverty in the third world. And immigration is not a solution to this problem, because there are too many people suffering hardship. For example, Africa has a population of 1.2 billion and that population is projected to double by 2050.
So poor Americans have a right to be frightened. The US is on a Malthusian trajectory.
Democrats need to wake up to the realization that population growth is a genuine problem. There are no easy answers. But we need to stop illegal immigration, not argue for open borders.
10
@Jake Wagner
I believe strongly in slowing population growth. That's why I support all reproductive rights for women, including free contraception.
But you are factually quite wrong about the U.S. There are SOME countries that really need to slow their population growth, such as India, Pakistan, and many Muslim countries. But not the U.S.
If anything, we are in danger of becoming more like Italy and Japan, with too little population growth. We need a little positive growth. And throughout the history of the U.S. some of that growth comes from 'foreigner' coming here. We would be a second rate country is we were limited to the descendants of the small number of European-Americans who came in here between 1492 and 1776.
3
This is less a story about religious faith, race, ethnicity or political affiliation than it is about common human decency, people organizing and committing to helping fellows in need.
I am unable to figure out the inner demons of rage that propel humans to such extreme hatred as to massacre defenseless innocents in cold blood.
I recognize the external prompts, however, slung in vicious mindlessness from the Oval Office, cravenly abetted in the halls of the "People's" Congress.
5
Thank for educating me on HIAS. This brought me to tears. Thank you. Why are refugees or immigrants so scapegoated? They bring so much good with them. Thank you.
12
Thanks for this article. As a Squirrel hill native who walked past the Tree of Life synagogue every day on the way to high school, I feel this attack more personally than any of the others I've heard about in the news. Thanks for reminding me that, even in a dark time, there is still so much in America (and in the world) to feel hopeful about.
7
My grandfather immigrated from Russia in 1906, with the aid of HIAS. He gave money to them for years when he could; my father continued that tradition, and so have I.
7
We emigrated in 1947 from Romania to Venezuela, together with many other families. We were granted Venezuelan immigrant visas requested by our families who had emigrated there before the Second World War.
We went by boat from Constanza to Marseille, and then by train from Marseille to Paris, to receive our visas from the Venezuelan consulate
Most, if not all of us had very little money: HIAS took care of us, found and paid for hotels, arranged and paid for our meals. We did not expect to have to stay in Paris for six months for the approved visas to arrive at the consulate - HIAS enabled us to survive.
19
This is fantastic. Thank you for writing this. It was restorative to read it.
16
Immigration has become such a touchy issue that we fail to appreciate how much a part of human life on this planet has been characterized by human migration. In all of human history, settled life has always been nothing but a pause between big shifts of people across the planet. It’s part of how humans have survived as a species.
Europe has been impacted fairly mildly by refugees from troubles in the greater Eurasian and North African region. But it has disturbed the sense of continuity there and so has generated nativism and fear of being displaced by strangers. Here, the fear of immigrants is just crazy because it’s nothing like the experiences which are bothering Europeans. Nobody’s lives are being changed by immigrants, here. That’s made up from many kinds of concerns about plausible future situations. People like Trump are playing on fears to manipulate people.
We have real challenges from climate change due human activity, to massive extinction of species, to wars and want driving millions of people from their homes, to economies that depend upon ever greater exploitation of resources to provide jobs, goods, and services for more and more people that deserve our attention. None of it’s going to be solved by demonizing people and treating them as enemies.
7
HIAS represents charity, unselfish and the best expression of the golden rule. But those who see strangers as threats oppose applying the golden rule to strangers and those who would do so as traitors and threats themselves. There just is no preventing this kind resentment towards genuine generous good behavior by other people.
People are wired to affiliate with groups and to see outsiders mistrustfully. However, a funny thing happens to traditional communities when they come under the control of greater communities that enforce rules across many traditional communities, their mistrust of strangers is so greatly reduced that travel across many communities becomes safe and trade can occur. People’s affiliations widen to include a lot more people. We have known times when Americans exhibit such an inclusive attitude.
We can reduce the hatred and malicious behavior over abstractions like political policies by recognizing that we are not existential adversaries because of different perceptions about social disagreements, that we are people who share commons interests and needs. No matter how fervently we might disagree, we must not treat each other as enemies. Presenting political adversaries as enemies has become the norm, it must stop.
It’s not just politicos who are treating our problems as due to terrible people. We often perceive others who don’t share our attitudes as unreasonable. It would be helpful to try to understand others with who we disagree.
10
@Casual Observer
This is good analysis based in historical reality, and essentially correct.
I would like to say that I don't hate Trump or his party, or even individual domestic terrorists. I do not have room in my heart for hating that many people.
However, I do not have to excuse their actions. Those that commit violent acts cannot be allowed to avoid accountability for their actions. Likewise those that create political space for hate and political violence by whipping up divisions, instead of unity, and calling for political violence without ever taking responsibility for it must be held accountable for their actions. (Notice that by electing Trump most Republicans seem to have absolved themselves of any responsibility for Iraq since Trump said it was bad, despite their vehement support for Bush and his war.)
A president is supposed to do the business of the people. Trump is too busy calling for political violence repeatedly, even joyfully mimicking an assault on a reporter.
Speech can motivate humans to violence. Wars would not happen if that was not true. Wars are planned. They are not spontaneous.
You have to convince a large part of the population that is a good idea (as the establishment convinced us before they attacked Iraq, releasing yet more chaos in the Middle East)
You have to buy weapons and ammunition, plan troop movements, give orders to attack...
I don't know how to hold the GOP accountable, but their actions have deadly consequences.
5
@McGloin VOTE against them
As admirable as this organization’s work seems to be, solving the problem of refugees around the world by bringing them to America can’t always be the solution. The world is a big place, and in many of its corners the rule of law that undergirds the American system does not exist. It becomes simply impossible to solve every refugee crisis by bringing refugees here.
This limitation runs counter to both the myth of America and to the historical conditions that allowed us to become a Mecca for immigrants. We no longer have either the empty space in which to place them, nor do we have as urgent an economic need to utilize their labor. In addition, the waves of immigration that did occur wrenchingly displaced millions of indigenous peoples who were already here, a bargain for which our moral standing in the world has been forever compromised. Then too, many of the refugees we imported were forcibly brought here, and a great deal of our nation’s wealth was garnered literally on the backs of these slaves. This is America’s original sin for which we are still repenting.
Still, immigration is a tool to be used, both as a moral force and as a driver of economic growth. We have to admit, however, its limitations, and solve most refugee crises by improving conditions where they take place so the that refugees don’t need a new home. Despite the President’s false rhetoric about globalism, it is in our self interest to be proactive around the world, growing other economies along with own.
10
@Marshall Doris
The more illegal you make the immigrants the more effective they are as threats against citizen employees. If we have the same protections, they are not as cheap.
You need to stop blaming other workers and start blaming the corporation that actually fired you.
A corporation has many people organized together for market strength. They meet in trade associations, have lobbying organizations, and make large secret donations to politicians. This is all considered normal.
But workers are not encouraged to organize together, have organizations to negotiate, our to lobby the government.
Instead workers are continuously divided in anyway possible.
If you are an employee blaming other employees, instead of the people that actually make all of the decisions and designed the system and processes, and who make the hiring and firing decisions, then you are being played.
We already have open borders, for corporations that fire entire factories full of people, then move the machinery to a country with lower wages (and now they pay half of the taxes of a factory that stays here!). Those factories create growth and revenue somewhere else.
If you want to reduce illegal immigration, you have to persecute the businesses and people that fire citizens to hire illegal immigrants. As long as companies will pay immigrants, immigrants will come.
Then when you find out that we do in fact need some immigration, we can invest some money to speed up regulated immigration.
4
Thank you for sharing this moving account. In 2016, a disparate group of friends (we are nominally Christian, Jewish and Hindu but mostly we are non-believers) sponsored a Syrian Muslim refugee family to come to Toronto. We told them we were doing this because our own families who came to North America a century ago had also fled persecution and war. Grateful for our help, they asked how they could repay us. We fumbled awkwardly, suggested they work hard to learn English. Then we said that someday in the distant future, after they had settled, lived good lives, & prospered, they could pay it forward and sponsor a refugee family who they don’t don’t know from a society they think of as foreign. They agreed wholeheartedly and I have no doubt someday those teenage daughters will do just that.
21
The question of who gets admitted as a refugee is a complex one. On the one hand, it is antithetical to our beliefs to let religious beliefs determine who is admitted to the US as a refugee. It is therefore wrong for Trump to deny entry to the US because of Muslim belief or any religious belief.
But issues of immigration are complex. And we need rational discussion, not the shouting that has characterized the American political scene since Trump assumed the presidency.
Above all, we need to recognize that there are limits to population growth. We can decide to accept those limits and work towards policies, like encouraging small families, and restricting levels of immigration, that enable the US to achieve a sustainable future. On the other hand, we have an obligation to the third world to alleviate suffering.
There are some things we cannot change, others that we can work to ameliorate. Immigration into the US does not solve the serious problem of poverty in the third world that is a consequence of too much population growth.
Paul Ehrlich published the Population Bomb in 1968. It argued that population growth would ultimately cause widespread starvation. Limits to Growth appeared in 1972 which looked at many possibilities, not just starvation, as consequences of population growth. Limits to Growth pointed out that pollution might over time cause environmental degradation, and it provided an early warning of global warming, which went unheeded.
14
@Jake Wagner. Thanks. You have cut thru the emotion that usually colors any discussion of immigration. The numbers show that we cannot take everybody who wants to come here. We can work to make the world a better place so that the 100s of millions who want to come here can stay where they are and make their countries better places to live. But we have to be an example here of how diverse people get along and make their country a better place as well.
6
The population bomb argument was introduced by Malthus in the 19th century. It contributed to the British government’s decision to allow grain grown in Ireland to be sold abroad while potatoes were being destroyed by blight and poor people were starving to death. The theory was nothing more than an observation than food production increased arithmetically while population growth proceeded exponentially. However, food production has grown far faster than forecast for reasons never anticipated. It’s a problem, for sure, but treating it like a looming catastrophe has never been a successful approach. People can be fed even when there are ten billion. The problem is what we will be doing to the biosphere could be drastic and irreversible.
4
We might also stop spreading messages of fear and hatred gussied up as science, with a smear of fake compassion somewhere on top.
1
Thank you for telling your story. Your words are so powerful
15
Thank you for telling us about HIAS. My great grandfather, a Lithuanian Jew, came to the U.S. in the late 19th/early 20th century. He was a shoemaker. He brought his wife and children over after he got settled. Their journey was made possible by a sponsor; perhaps it was HIAS. My family is not Jewish (grandpa married a gentile), but I am proud of my Jewish heritage and glad to have found a way to honor that by supporting HIAS.
29
Only in a Trumpian universe could an organization like HIAS be demonized. Thank you, Mr. Golinkin for shedding light on the true, humane, and completely admirable mission of this refugee aid organization.
55
Thanks for sharing your story of salvation in America. Organizations like HIAS should be brought to our attention more often. It's so refreshing to read about the good done in the world. It's sickening to think that it's taken such a tragedy for HIAS to make the headlines.
28
I remember my father, who was a holocaust survivor and arrived in the U.S. in 1949 with his family, often spoke of HIAS and the aid and shelter it provided for him when he first arrived. He would talk of the HIAS hotel.
30
“We decided to help, not because they are Jewish, but because we are Jewish.” I’m not Jewish, but I’ve noticed how prominent Jews are in helping other groups in need. From the American civil rights struggle to the Bosnian civil war, Jews have stepped up to help. They supported Croats, a group that persecuted Jews in WW II. They are prominent is support of American Muslims against discrimination. In a selfish and xenophobic world, over and over, Jews are the good guys.
106
@Little Lambsy Divie
Thank you, your words mean so much to me. It often saddens me that so few people seem to understand how active so many Jews in America are, and always have been, in fighting racism, injustice, and inequality.
Thank you again.
8
@Little Lambsy Divie. I remember being a kid in the south and seeing blacks marching for civil rights and being curious who the white people with them were. Of coarse, many of them were Jews. I was, even as a kid, impressed by that kind of courage.
8
HIAS does indeed represent what is best about America and about Judaism.
Your mom’s immigrant story, not always smooth and perfect but ultimately a success, and your immigrant story are part of what truly Makes America Great.
It is extraordinarily sad that most of us are learning about the extraordinary work that HIAS has always done, that it continues to do every day, because of this evil man’s absolute hatred of Jews and immigrants, love of guns, horrific, terrorist murderous rampage that shattered so many innocent lives. He represents what is worst in America, worst in humanity.
And in Trump, we have a President who consistently brings out what is worst in our country.
35
It would seem more sincere and genuine if Jewish organizations were working just as hard to help asylum seekers and refugees enter Israel. Israel has some of the strongest border protections against illegal entry in the world, and yet so many of Israel's most ardent supporters in the USA and Europe seem to expend enormous energy fighting against border protections elsewhere while carefully ignoring Israel's extremely rigid border controls.
7
@Peter Johnson
Vey far off point. The author of this piece is a Jew, and like most Jewish people, NOT an Israeli. Please do not equate ethnic or religious identity with nationality or citizenship. Further, the organization HIAS has no influence over Israeli policy. Why can you not accept and appreciate people simply helping people.
11
@Peter Johnson. This is the conundrum of immigration in the 21st century. The truth is, most countries are so crowded now that our old rules of just accepting everybody who is persecuted no longer apply. If Israel accepts everybody who would go there, jews would soon be a minority in their own country. Even without more immigration the Arab proportion of Israel is growing faster than the Jewish proportion. Our emphasis has to be on eliminating the reasons people want to leave their countries (Central America comes to mind) rather than just moving them all to whereever is nicer. It's a new world.
2
@Peter Johnson Why do you think that is?
1
My heartfelt thanks for your representation of HIAS and what it means to be an immigrant to America.
Thanks, Tom
28
"...adults fleeing gang violence are not refugees...refugees are people fleeing..violence". Huh? What partisan stance underlies this prezel logic?
4
HIAS helped my father-in-law after he managed to escape from a Nazi concentration camp. After 130 years of existence it is still helping provide shelter and self-sufficiency to refugees who are victims of other evils.
27
What a noble thought.
Some felt it was inappropriate for HIAS, a Jewish group, to devote resources to aiding Muslims; HIAS, to its eternal credit, disagreed. As Mark Hetfield, the president and chief executive of HIAS, once told me, “We decided to help, not because they are Jewish, but because we are Jewish.” On Oct. 19, HIAS organized a national refugee Shabbat.
17
Thank you so much Mr. Golinkin! And thank you to the editor that decided to publish this article! Articles like this are much needed as a proof that the reality is quite different from the one depicted by the “you-know-whom”.
In another article today, the pain of real journalists came through as they bravely do their job in this atmosphere of belittling and twisting their words. I feel for them and fear for my country.
We need more articles and interviews from people around the country that know the truth about any of the claims of the Liar in chief and the unscrupulous supporters in politics and media.
12
I deeply regret the circumstances that caused so many Jewish people to leave their homes. However, I am also very grateful that when they did, they came here. Their contributions have been immense.
Julia Brown
27
Mr. Golinkin, while I applaud and am proud of HIAS, there is a critical aspect of the discussion that is simply not being acknowledged.
HIAS did not, for example, suggest accepting as refugees German civilians (ethnic Germans) who were under threat of retaliation, rape and murder from the Red Army as it closed in on them circa 1944. No American group did, because these German civilians would have been considered to be sympathetic to the Nazi cause, if not Nazis themselves.
During the 2016 election democratic primaries, Martin O'Malley suggested facilitating the large scale immigration of Arab Christian (Mandean, Chaldean, Assyrian) and other minorities under threat from ISIS in Syria, which is a majority Sunni Arab country. No one found this particularly objectionable, but when Mike Pence suggested the same thing, he was condemned as "Islamophobic" and a bigot for suggesting this.
Rukmini Callimachi, who writes for this paper has discussed ISIS in greater detail than perhaps any other mainstream journalist, and has highlighted the fact that in Sunni Arab communities where ISIS gained control in recent years, ISIS was looked upon as preferable to non-Sunni alternatives, whether Bashar Al-Assad's government, or the Shiite dominated government in Iraq.
HIAS means well, but it terrifies me when I see a fellow Jew drawing false equivalences between Jewish refugees fleeing the Cossacks, Nazis, or Ayatollahs, and every person we are now calling a "refugee."
4
Thank You HIAS for what you are doing, words cannot express how righteous your mission is.
44
More of what a real America is, and should be, about.
23
I did not know what HIAS was when I read it in the Pittsburgh killer's online message. Thank you for this wonderful introduction to a truly American organization. I need to be reminded at a moment like this of who we are. Wouldn't it be wonderful if thousands of us stood at the border with opened arms and welcomed in the thousands who are walking through Mexico toward US at this very moment?
20
HIAS saved my parents also. They were Holocaust survivors. My father's first family, a wife and 7 children, were murdered in the death camps. Surviving a number of concentration camps, including Auschwitz, he wandered through several DP camps in Germany and Austria until he met my mother. She was from Romania and left there illegally in 1946, traveling across the post-war chaos of Europe until she ended up in the same DP camp as my father. They married and signed up with HIAS to come to the USA. That happened in late 1949. I have the HIAS case number. They were set up by HIAS in, of all places, Lincoln, Nebraska, where I was born. HIAS gave my parents, especially my father, a new life. Where would I be without their courage?
123
@Emmathedogsmom
My black African ancestors were enslaved survivors of their American historical holocaust.
My free person of color ancestors were the separate and unequal survivors of their American historical holocaust.
Color aka race is the mark of whose lives matter most in America. Being white European Judeo- Christian in America is the privileged powerful perch.
3
Even though I am Jewish, I had never heard of HIAS until now. It seems that this organization exemplifies the best in not only Judaism but humanity. And it also seems that we can thank Trump’s anti immigrant exhortations for inciting the violence committed in Pittsburgh. When will our national
nightmare end?
10
@Eric Holzman I too am Jewish and only heard of HIAS this morning. I donated.
1
I teared up when I got to the end.
6
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me." - Martin Niemoller
We all must stand and speak for each other and stand and speak against hatred and bigotry. The Tree of Life Synagogue must inspire us to stand for right and to stand with those who a persecuted unfairly.
Our country is undergoing a noisy revolution that speaks against immigrants, people of color, women, and many other groups. May we have the courage to stand up and speak up for justice and fairness. White nationalism has no place and those who lost their lives speak to us to stand up and speak up.
26
Lev.
Thank you for reminding us that we are all the children of refugees of one form or other in this country. This is truly Americas' greatness.
5
I wonder what would happen if all Americans has such an organization to help them feel they belong and are part of a larger group who care.
Sure, we could create that in a few years, but we won't.
It isn't profitable to give the lost and abandoned housing, medical care, jobs, and a sense that they belong and matter.
Make no mistake about it, there is a trail of tears of unbelievable, and unbearable burden for some in this rich America.
Not in any way excusing this murderers behavior, just wishing for safety from this nightmare.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
4
My condolence to you and your family on the death of your wonderful Mother as described by you. I wish every news outlet media and newspapers would print your beautiful well worded article. I have always known about HIAS. I did not know that they now help resettle all immigrants no matter their faith. I am typing this through tears in my eyes. Some of the tears are for the hope and sanity you bring to us in these horrific times. We as a nation need to focus on words like yours and not those that constantly bring hate and division and allow evil sick people to maim and kill. I do not think it necessary to name those at the top who help foment these horrific acts by their incitement and words that aide to bring them to fruition.
Once again my condolence to you and your family and the families of those of the murdered victims at The Tree of Life Synagogue.
10
HIAS brought a pair of my father's cousins, who were survivors of the Nazi genocide in Hungary, to Chicago where they made new and productive lives for themselves. It's heartening to hear that HIAS has put its expertise, honed in crises of the Jews' hard history, to work for others. Thus is the United States of America kept great, through strength arising out of diversity.
8
After reading this description of HIAS, I went online and donated.
15
@David Me too.
The swift arrest of the Florida bomber and the bravery of police officers in facing down the gunman at the Pittsburgh massacre showed American law enforcement at its best -- and Trump at his worst. Instead of calming down his inflammatory rhetoric and admitting that it may have helped inspire these crazies, he of course doubled down, has not called off his endless rallies and continues to paint targets on the backs of his Democratic critics. And what have we heard from Republican leaders in Congress? Nothing.
11
Violence, in words as well as deeds, only breeds more violence. Then "things fall apart"... If it weren't for such humane individuals as those who support or are part of, HIAS, we would despair of human nature.
8
While I am sure that the current period of hatred and vilification of immigrants will eventually pass, I am not sure how long that will take and it makes me ashamed for my country.
Every person living in these United States is the descendant of migrants from somewhere else. Even the first peoples- also called Native Americans or Indians - are from people who migrated here long ago. The only difference between a member of a first people’s tribe, a descendant of Mayflower passengers and a newly arrived asylum seeker is the day their family’s story began here. We need to get over this xenophobic nonsense and see the common humanity in everyone.
We are all humans and we share one planet that has no national boundaries visible from afar in space. Our future is inextricably linked as we share the same water, air and sunshine. What we all share is so much greater than the small things that distinguish us from one another.
I am not Jewish and am an agnostic, but was raised in the Christian faith. To quote Jesus, whom Christians hold to be God in the flesh.
“Even as you have done it for the least of these, my brothers, you have done it unto me.” Love your neighbor.
41
America needs a spiritual awakening. This tragedy, the pipe bombs, the outpouring of hatred would not be happening if a large segment of society did not think it was OK. Many will blame Trump. I will admit that he is the visible face and gives the public approval of much of the fear, but the fear was there or he would not have been elected.
Our country is changing and doing so rapidly, many celebrate this change, yet remember that there are many who do not like this change or the rate of change. When they express their reservations, they are ridiculed, so they turn inward to a small closed group who feed on their own fear.
Diversity does not mean just diversity of color, or sexual orientation, it means the right to disagree and for those opinions to be given weight. What is happening is a result of them not having a way to express their reservations.
The election of Trump showed that there are millions of people who are uncomfortable with both the direction and rate of change in our nation. They cannot be dismissed as deplorables or crazies. We must find a way to incorporate their concerns and perhaps slow down the rate of change to allow them to catch up.
Conservatives are part of our nation too, we must recognize that and find a way to work with them for the betterment of all.
2
thank you for reminding us of our duties.
8
Thank you for shining some light by telling us about HIAS. The best way to fight evil is to do good. I urge all people who care to support this wonderful organization.
12
It seems that there is money, power and fame to be acquired by “selling” hatred and fear throug the internet, media and politics. This is the root of the problem in the last few tragedies. Creative minds can find ways to bring back truth, maturity and respect. Otherwise we are going to suffer an ugly future.
1
Great article, touched my heart, even tho the last 24 hours, my emotional heart for out country had been hurt, yet again, by partisanal mostly white haters of other colors, religions, of people in dire need of safety from economic, gangster, ex lover, political threats.
1
I feel sad that a hater knew of this wonderful organization and I did not. HIAS seems to represent what I always thought was the essence of America - Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. Great article.
14
Thank you for this enlightening piece and to the Jewish families who are part of aiding refugees. We often forget there are many people and many religiously-affiliated organizations who silently go about doing good works for their fellow man who is less fortunate. That such goodness should cause a crazed mind to unleash such a tragedy is almost beyond comprehension until you realize the evil person who denigrates migrants on a daily basis is encouraging this behavior.
5
At the end of WWII, my father-in-law having escaped from concentration camps, found himself in Cremona Italy. There he went to a HIAS training school and emigrated to the USA, with a skill that allowed him a middle class life here.
HIAS has been the gateway for many immigrants to the USA to learn about their new home, get settled here and make them good citizens of this country. They espoused the fact that if yuo want to live in America, you need to learn how to be an American.
Now they are doing the same thing for others (than Jews). We need more HIAS-type organizations and less troops at our borders. Those who want to come here, for opportunity and not "invaders" or "hoards", they are the ones who want what America used to offer and it will be HIAS-type organizations that will help them to get it, and help build good citizens for our country.
20
Thank you for reminding us of the excellent works done by HIAS (and countless other Jewish organizations).
Sadly, it is precisely these good works that attract the attention of serial haters and serial killers in the United States.
Hate is not selective. In the era of Trump, hate is directed toward anyone who is not straight, white and Christian. All sexual, ethnic and religious minorities are equally targeted.
President Trump seems not to understand that his rhetoric gives license to these haters to direct their hostility and violence to all these groups. A person who hates Latino immigrants is likely to direct their animosity toward Jews, Muslims, LGBTQ people and non-Americans--particularly from brown and black populations.
Trump needs to own his responsibility toward this hatred and violence. After reading his scripted remarks in both this heinous crime and the bombs sent to Democratic leaders and CNN (whom he refused to name), he reverted to his dog-whistles and winks and nods to his "base"--effectively saying that "attacking people who are not like you is perfectly OK."
I am sick of this, and terrified about the future if Trump is not contained in the midterm elections next week. All voters--Republicans, Democrats, Independents, need to oust GOP supporters of Trump from office. That is the only curb on his extreme actions and rhetoric. It is not a matter of tribal party affiliation. It is to stop the terrible danger Trump poses for our nation.
20
Rather than just repeat the mantra that the US is a nation of immigrants and refugees, we should study that history to better appreciate what it means and sensitize us to the hardships those people experienced in trying to make a better life. The work of HIAS is one entry point. Pondering the meaning of the Statue of Liberty is another imaginative entry point. Immigration is not an abstraction, it is our nation’s lifeblood. It has renewed our nation’s dynamism throughout our existence.
Looked at another way, HIAS’s expansion of its mission represents intersectionality at its best - not the fake politically motivated kind that, far too often, excluded Jews. HIAS helps all immigrants and refugees across cultural, racial and ethnic barriers. Another less well known example of intersectionality arose from the Jewish reaction to the infamous Kishinev pogrom. When Tsarist Russia sought to blunt American protests by pointing to the lynchings of blacks in the US, Jews teamed up with black leaders to help form the NAACP and played a key role in the Civil Rights movement.
These are all American stories with many more yet to be written. And all thanks to “new” Americans.
19
Trump has long been riding the tiger of intolerance and bigotry and thought that he could control it for maximum political advantage. As we have seen in the last week, sometimes the tiger has other ideas.
9
HIAS helped all four of my grandparents when they left Russia and came to the US in the years before WWI. I've always held that organization in the highest esteem.
5
Replacing "HIAS" with "America" in this article would simply remind us that America's real strength derives from its welcoming of immigrants and that today's open anti-immigration incitement is a stake driven at what actually makes America great.
7
HIAS was in the forefront of bringing refugee “boat people” from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. And synagogues across the United States welcomed and supported these families.
10
Wow. A powerful statement about what this country should be - and how immigrants can help us become that.
Thank you.
10
Who are we if we are only for ourselves and if not now when? America was the melting pot who not very happily welcomed many immigrants. My father left Galicia at fifteen to an unknown life in America, looking for a better life, not so different from the Irish, Italians and Chinese. This is similar to the migrants from Honduras or Syria, all are seeking that better life of safety, the right to earn a fair wage and raise of family, how have we come to equate them to our worse fears? These fears are carefully stoked to incinerate our Democracy by our number one leader.
3
Thank you for sharing this. You have educated me and bround a human element to an organization that I knew nothing about. At a personal level I wish you strength and peace in dealing with the loss of your mother.
9
I hadn't heard of HIAS. I am glad to know about your good work on behalf of suffering human beings. I'm appalled at what happened. It raises images of the worst nightmares imaginable from the 20th century, and similar cruel and predatory behavior that continues up to this day.
2
Thank you. I too will donate to this orgaziation, that along with fellow organizations like the IRC, are doing the Good Work in this time of darkness.
5
“If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?”
13
Excellent article . Here is reason the shooter hated the work of HAIS and organized Jewish institutions:
Here is the main reason for the latest mass shooter's terrorist action against Jews for supporting the refugee assistance of HIAS:
I am sure Trump hates HIAS as well
""At National Refugee Shabbat events across the country, participants asked what else can they do to help refugees and asylum seekers. We at HIAS have an answer: take action before the midterm elections through HIAS’ Vote for Welcome campaign. The campaign seeks to raise the profile of refugee issues, educate candidates about the importance of refugee protection, and ask candidates to take a public stance on the issue of refugee resettlement. At this critical moment, the need to raise our voices has never been greater.
HIAS National Refugee Shabbat was co-sponsored by: Academy for Jewish Religion (AJR), American Jewish Committee (AJC), Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies, The Rabbinical Assembly (RA), Reconstructing Judaism, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association (RRA), T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ)."""
From HIAS website
I am 100% convinced that Trump inflamed the hatred of the shooter and other right wing hate mongers. Going to a rally right after the killings was obscene.
8
I’ve been crying since yesterday.
Maybe it shouldn’t, but the killing yesterday affected me more than other equally horrendous and senseless killings because I am Jewish and because my parents were Holocaust survivors. They came here, as the vast majority of immigrants (past and present) for the dream of a better, safer life for themselves and their children. I cry because that dream is fraying and we will all be diminished because it.
Thank-you for this beautifully written, heart-felt essay.
106
@Maxie
I am moved to mourn by humble humane empathy for my fellow human beings who were not black African Methodist Episcopal American like me whose ancestors were enslaved rather than immigrants or refugees.
4
@Maxie You are so right that we will all be diminished (I'm a white Christian male). We mourn for our Jewish friends, and you are absolutely correct that it affects us all. This is not at all the country I thought I lived in.
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Thank you for sharing this beautiful, moving and personal story. The world is better when this kind of information is shared. Much beauty exists in the world.
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This should be mandatory reading for all Americans starting with POTUS. Thank you Mr Golinkin for a wonderful essay.
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Thank you for a proper, and simply beautiful, introduction to HIAS. I hope this humble and plain-spoken introduction is read and shared by millions today and in the days leading up to Election Day.
Your introduction to HIAS reminds me of what is common to most introductions by friends to new friends. You shake the hand of a stranger, and within moments the realization dawns. This stranger and I have much in common. The pattern repeats and surprises despite how frequent and common. Trepidation; who is this person? Exploration; who are you, this is me, in what ways are we alike? Realization; those core traits most important, and often forgotten in my life, are also important and dear to your life.
What, who is HIAS? Then, within moments, shortly after the introduction, I recognize the pattern. HIAS and America have much in common. HIAS, and the best of who we are as compassionate and welcoming people, is our common, and lately forgotten, core trait.
I will seek out HIAS today and support its effort to strengthen and defend the policy of providing refuge to all people suffering throughout the world. America is made greater by every new friend introduced to our shores.
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Like you, my parents and I were saved by HIAS and brought from an American displaced persons camp in Austria on a ship called the Marine Flasher to "the golden land." Once here, my parents, correctly, assumed the presence of anti-Semitism and I can still remember their long, long list of admonitions. Their hope was that total of them, if followed, would make me invisible in public and consequently keep me safe. Now, seventy years later, and in Berkeley, I hear similar admonitions from parents to their children and directly from students I have taught. The religions and skin colors are other than mine. The parents, for even more urgent reasons, are exactly like mine. I thought that gold doesn't tarnish. But it has here.
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We need to be thankful for the great, selfless work bring done by HIAS, CAIR and other organizations that make our world better and the fabric of our country stronger. Thank you for your beautiful, important, timeless, inclusive true story.
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I've always been aware that there is a dark side to the good 'ol USA, but I'm a little shocked by it's magnitude these days. Trump is just a symptom. We don't seem to care about suffering or any of the values that make life more difficult, but also make it worth living. How did we get so callous?
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@jdp Trump is not "just a symptom," he is a primary inciter of hatred for people who are "different" in any way. His rhetoric, as well as his lack of strong condemnation of many acts is a cause of these feelings and a lack of caring "about suffering." He is making our country more callous. The recent atrocities were apparently, allegedly, committed by people who strongly support him and his ideas.
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Thank you for your article. I didn't know about HIAS. But should have given WWII history. Thank goodness that this stella work is alive and vibrant. My family, as every family, came from another country going back from the day this land was founded. They were not persecuted but wanted a better life. I pray that each and every citizen VOTES on Nov. 6 and in 2020! Our vote is what will hopefully pull our country proudly into its core values, a treasure in this world! I met a young waitress the other day, thrilled to be in the USA on a visa. She was not persecuted in her country but just wanted to be here for the values.... To see the sparkle in her eyes give us renewed pleasure in our good fortune to be citizens! God bless you and thank you for your beautiful article.
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I lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan until I was 14, and the Jewish community there was dedicated to fighting racism, poverty, injustice and inequality. I had not heard of this wonderful organization, HIAS, but this article rings so true for me. It was the same when we moved to NYC. Thank you, Mr. Golinkin, for your beautiful article and for drawing our attention to this organization in such a heartfelt and eloquent manner.
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I was one of those Jewish refugees from the USSR, who came here as a kid, and HIAS had played a major role in my family's life. It's been almost three decades since then and the memory of HIAS has slowly faded away, but your article revived those memories and it struck me just how important it is what HIAS does how it represents the core values that make America truly Great. I made my donation today.
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I had never heard of HIAS, but this rang so true, thank you. I came as a child to the USA, part of an immigrant family fleeing persecution. My father ended up working for decades as a clerk at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC. We were showered with the kindness and inclusiveness of so many there who were Jewish. I have known for the past 50 years that most of those who have formed me through college, and later in all aspects of my life and career with their ideas, their friendship, who have instilled and secured my sense of social justice, were Jewish. I will continue to fight for America to be the place where we can all be safe, no matter what our ethnicity or religion. I wish we didn't need this atrocious wake up call. My parents worked in menial jobs, but my brother and sisters, and our children, are successful contributors to our country as doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs. My parents were refugees from Haiti.
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@Emilie Kernisan
Thank you for this beautiful testament which lights up what binds us as imperfect, intrinsically related human beings. We must look into the mirror of each other's eyes and see what is precious about every human life. So long as identity politics prevent us from holding hands and walking together, those currently in charge will continue their dangerous, destructive campaigns. We must hold hands and walk forward, together, keeping the forces of hatred and fear and ignorance out. In Judaism it is said, when one dies, a whole world dies. Certainly, the opposite must also be true. On this saddest of Sundays in recent memory, I call out to all those millions of Americans who remember what is true and most important, share your own light and love and knowledge freely, to honor those who have died.
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@Emilie Kernisan And never forget that those of us who hold true American values are honored and enriched by your presence.
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Through all evil, a glimmer hope always manages to shine through.
Thanks for the article.
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Thank you, Lev Golinkin, for your moving, uplifting, heartbreaking, beautiful essay.
To paraphrase Mr. Hetfield: It used to be that we decided to help, not because they are American, but because we are American. May we bring that day back again. May we be united for good again. May we be American again.
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Interesting example of stealth by acronym. HIAS changes their core mission, while hiding a key aspect of their previous identity in a single letter. No political comment here; just my take on a "marketing" strategy that is becoming more common.
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HIAS decided, based on the the organization's Judaism, that its core mission is to help refugees; you're suggesting that its core mission was necessarily to help Jews and that the expansion was inauthentic "rebranding." There's a lot of politics--and implied theology--in that idea.
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@Mike The author said it himself: "Some felt it was inappropriate for HIAS, a Jewish group, to devote resources to aiding Muslims..." There were obviously some within the organization who opposed the change. The HIAS leadership had to then assume that (some number of) outsiders would feel the same way. They appear to have made the change to try to accommodate this concern, or conceal it. I don't know.
@c smith No marketing strategy. How about just being modest in doing good?
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Thank you for this essay. In these times it is comforting to remember that the good in mankind's heart will ultimately prevail.. Your piece is a ray of light in a dark time.
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Often those who are making a positive difference in the lives of others do not trumpet their work and successes. It is no small wonder that many of us were just discovering yesterday the acronym HIAS. Thank you for illuminating how the organization has quietly been helping refugees from around the world since the last century. Its name now represents a beacon of light in a dark time for us all.
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Having just read Howard Fineman's piece in today's NY Times and getting yet another dose of despair I needed something uplifting. Thanks you for this piece...it gave me a much needed dose of hope.
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HIAS is an excellent organization that has done much good in the world. It’s Director Mark Hetfield has done an excellent job managing its activities over his long tenure.
But What this article fails to mention is that HIAS, along with the other 8 organizations that contract with the government to assist refugeees are on the verge of extinction due to this administration’s anti-refugee policies. From the President to Stephen Miller to General Kelly, who said his preferred number for the annual refugee ceiling was “between 0 and 1,” this administration is doing everything in its power to dismantle America’s long standing tradition of leading the world on refugee policy and resettling a tiny fraction of the world’s refugees as important marker for other nations to share this burden.
While Trump has clearly seized on the issue and tells innumerable lies for cynical political reasons to inflame his base, Kelly as a Brigadier General assigned to Iraq is well aware that the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program was often used to resettle Iraqi’s and Afghans who, because they worked for the U.S. military or U.S. aid organizations, were in imminent peril.
The U.S abdication of it’s longstanding role in assisting refugees, including those who risked their lives in the belief that the U.S. could improve their country, at a time when the world is facing its greatest refugee and displaced crisis since WWII, is both tragic and shameful.
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@rb
It is shameful. Immigrants are what has made America ‘great’. The current Administration is making it mean, unwelcoming and closed.
I am ashamed mostly because it works with such a large number of Americans.
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Children or adults fleeing gang violence are not refugees. Persons fleeing domestic violence are not refugees. Economic migrants are not refugees.
'Who is a refugee?
A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so. War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries.
Two-thirds of all refugees worldwide come from just five countries: Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar and Somalia.'
https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/what-is-a-refugee/
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@Colenso You may wish to reconsider whether “gang violence” is excluded from the definition you have quoted. As to whether “domestic violence” may be included is a closer question. The larger problem in those countries is the collapse of the rule of law that makes people flee in the first place.
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@Colenso
The narrowness of your definition is silly and indicates a prejudice of some kind.
The people fleeing the countries you listed are fleeing the exact same violence as the people you intend to exclude. Your imaginings about the motivation for that violence have no merit.
If your government does not serve you or protect you or simply cannot do so even if they want to (this is due to GOP meddling to create exactly that situation to better exploit them for profit) you are being persecuted for your membership in the social group "poor & powerless"!
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@Colenso you refuted your first paragraph in your second paragraph. You first say people fleeing violence are not refugees, then you say that fleeing violence is the definition of a refugee.
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Excellent and very moving essay, which gets to the heart of what it means to be a refugee in America, and explaining HIAS and its invaluable work so well. This is Judaism, and press freedom, at its best. Thank you.
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I am an immigrant, who came on a jet plane with a French engineering degree to get a graduate degree in this country and stayed. Hardly the type of person in need of HIAS help. So, when I saw these letters in news reports, I did not know what they stood for. Thank you for writing about it and in such a beautiful moving way. After reading your piece, the first thing I do was to make a donation to HIAS.
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@Claude Vidal
Thank-you Claud. If any good comes of this horrendous, senseless act of violence, it might be more people learning and supporting HIAS.
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On Father's Day this year, I visited the hometown of my great-grandfather in Germany. In the mid-30s when things got bad for Jews in Germany, he was fortunate enough to be granted a refugee visa to come to the US with his wife and young daughter; most of his family and friends were not so lucky. It was not easy starting over in a new country, but he eventually settled in San Francisco and raised his family there.
His descendants have gone on to serve our country in the State Department, Parks Service, and Peace Corps, to teach at universities, to be doctors and educators and scientists and activists. Refugees, and the families they bring to America, make us a stronger and better nation. This is not an abstract ideal; this is my family's story and the story of so many other families in our country. American Jews have not forgotten that so many of us came as refugees, and we cannot, and will not, turn our back on those in need today who will be the next generation of proud Americans.
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Thanks for this. We need to be reminded of what normal looks like.
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Thank you for sharing. Your words made me tear up with the horror that occurred yesterday. Thank you to HIAS for your wonderful work. I look forward to donating to HIAS peacemaking work.
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Thank you for sharing your experience. I had no idea what HIAS was, and I feel uplifted and inspired to know it is carrying out such good work.
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I am one of the few Americans who already knew HIAS. My parents were refugees from Eastern Europe who arrived on n 1947. My father, a lawyer, and my mother, with two years of medical school behind her, were suddenly thrust into a language and a country they didn’t understand. It was HIAS that helped them find a new city and new jobs and new lives. I was already a HIAS donor; I hope you, too, will support their essential work.
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Jesus was Jewish.
He was a mensch.
He was a Democratic socialist who did not judge his fellow man and woman.
Perhaps America’s pretend-Christians should learn a few facts about their supposed Lord and try to emulate his charity and the spirit of Judaism.
“Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”
- The Talmud
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@Socrates
Thank you so much. This needed to be said, and you said it beautifully.
-Wendy
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@Socrates
I had thought I had seen everything by the time I was 17. And then I got into the argument with a guy I looked up to shouting me down about how Jesus was not a Jew he was a Christian!
There is no bottom to the depths of fearful ignorant imaginings.
15
And if an Egyptian ruler had built a wall about 2000 years ago to stop refugees fleeing from a murderous tyrant??
4
Thank you for sharing your story about HIAS. It was very moving and reflects how there are still organizations which help all, regardless of race, religion, color or gender.
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Thank you for explaining who HIAS is to me. There is more good in this world than we know of. While we are inundated daily with horror in the news, we must also learn about the good things people do and embrace them. In that way we may be inspired to change ourselves and the world.
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I had never heard of this organization until yesterday, so I thank you for making me see so clearly who they are. Through your words, they have gained yet another supporter. For those of us who have so much, donations are a small price to pay for people who help others - regardless of any religious affiliation - gain relative safety and freedom. We can only hope that yesterday’s tragedy will make HIAS an even more successful organization.
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Difficult to read given the circumstances but so important. It would enrich our nation greatly if every family in America could read and discuss this today.
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I'm grateful to be able to read this beautiful and moving statement today.
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This story brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for sharing. Tolerance, inclusion and kindness is the only way we can share this small planet.
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