Mark Hetfield is President and CEO of HIAS. He is on Twitter @markjhetfield
Mark Hetfield
By Mark Hetfield
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Opinion Ukrainian refugees need our help. Here’s how Jews can act now
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently made an urgent plea to global leaders: “If you don’t help us now, if you fail to offer a powerful assistance to Ukraine, tomorrow the war will knock on your door.” The war is already knocking. Ukrainians — especially women and children — are fleeing their cities, enduring unimaginable risks….
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Opinion I run the Jewish refugee agency. Our work in Afghanistan is nowhere close to done
This has been a tough week for all of us at HIAS, but it has been so much worse for the people of Afghanistan. My mind is occupied by the family members of the Afghans and the Americans who were killed at Karzai Airport today, and for the many people of Afghanistan whose lives are…
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Opinion We’re Jewish advocates for refugees. Biden’s inertia means Congress must act.
While President Biden made mention of immigration reform in his first address to Congress this week, the fate of refugees was conspicuously absent. After weeks of whiplash for refugees and their advocates, we’re still waiting for clarity on a path forward. On April 16, President Biden announced he would maintain the limit on the number…
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Forward 50 2018 David Lubell
A Welcoming Jewish American I write this from Pittsburgh, from what is literally Mister Rogers’s neighborhood, a neighborhood now surrounded by grief and sadness after the murder of 11 members of the Jewish community. Just prior to invading the sacred space of the synagogue, the murderer posted a hateful rant against Jews, against refugees, against…
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Opinion Letter to the Editor: The Notion That HIAS ‘Profits’ from Resettling Refugees is Ludicrous
On January 31, the Forward published a letter from the leadership of another Jewish organization that directly challenged the position of Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) on the Refugee and Muslim Ban, signed by President Trump on January 25, 2017, which happened to be International Holocaust Remembrance Day. During the 1930s and 1940s, there were…
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Opinion Syria Refugee Crisis Demands Action From Jewish World
June 20 is World Refugee Day. Let’s use the opportunity of this annual commemoration by the United Nations to put the “refugee crises” facing the U.S. and Israel in perspective with the true crisis exploding in Syria. The United States and Israel are countries built by refugees. A refugee is someone who flees persecution in…
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