For some Washington, D.C.-area synagogues, Refugee Shabbat has become more pertinent than ever amid increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity and the alleged denial of due process to detained immigrants.
HIAS — originally the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society — recently marked its eighth annual Refugee Shabbat on March 13 to 14. The event’s purpose? To educate communities on the global refugee crisis, share stories of displaced individuals and honor the Jewish commitment of “welcoming the stranger,” according to HIAS’ website.
Robin Shaffert, a member of Temple Micah, coordinated the D.C. Reform synagogue’s March 13 Refugee Shabbat. She is among the founders of Temple Micah’s Sukkat Shalom team, which has worked to support refugees and migrants since 2017.
The event featured guest speaker Joanne Lin, the executive director of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, to share the work the committee does to support immigrant justice, Shaffert said. Sukkat Shalom has financially supported the Washington Lawyers’ Committee.
“The theme [of Refugee Shabbat] is to focus on both individual cases and on the broader work,” Shaffert said. “We just felt that the work that they’re doing is so important, that we’d like to hear about that pursuing justice piece of the pie this year.”
The Temple Micah community also invited the Afghan families that they’ve helped resettle in the D.C. area, citing the Jewish values of “welcoming the stranger” and tzedek — justice.
The issue is also personal to Shaffert given her immigrant roots. Shaffert’s father and four grandparents arrived in the United States as immigrants — her father and his parents from Nazi Vienna, and her mother’s parents from Poland: “My people were refugees too,” she said.
“There were already immigration quotas in place in the 1930s and there were both organizations and individuals who helped my family come to this country and resettle, so I feel a personal connection to it,” Shaffert said of immigrant justice.
Shaffert said she hopes the Refugee Shabbat brought “energy and renewed energy” to attendees.
“We want to have renewed energy to do the work,” she said. “We want people to have the opportunity to hear what [our] specific partners are doing and understand the ways in which they can individually and that we collectively can play a part in this important work.”
Rabbi Jenna Shaw of Sixth & I, which also hosted a Refugee Shabbat on March 13, similarly spoke to the power of community.
“It was great,” Shaw said of the event. “I feel like in this moment where there’s so much brokenness in our world, to be able to come together and lean on both community and the wisdom and spiritual practices of Judaism is really, really special.”
Alana Eichner, a Sixth & I member who works in immigrant justice, gave the Shabbat sermon. While some synagogues have historically featured an immigrant or asylum seeker as a Refugee Shabbat guest speaker, the Sixth & I community felt that that option wasn’t currently safe, especially in the nation’s capital.
“Given the federal takeover in our city and the increased attacks on our immigrant neighbors in D.C. and across the country, it felt really dangerous to put someone who is an immigrant, who is at risk … up to that platform in that way,” Shaw said. “That felt antithetical to what we’re trying to do at a Shabbat that’s supposedly about refugees and immigrants.”
The rabbi said holding a Refugee Shabbat is about more than simply “checking a box.”
“We wanted to have someone who is Jewish in this work give us both the grounded tools that help her and the resilience to be in this fight, and also to remind us that it might feel overwhelming, but we can’t not do this work,” Shaw said.
Kehilat Shalom’s Rabbi Charles Arian spoke at a Feb. 18 Rabbinical Assembly webinar titled, “Welcoming the Stranger: Preparing for Refugee Shabbats,” which sought to provide Jewish leaders with Torah and resources for their communities’ Refugee Shabbats.
“Everybody in this country — unless they are 100% Native American — is descended from people who came [from] somewhere else,” Arian told Washington Jewish Week. “Our ancestors came here to find freedom, escape persecution, make a better life, et cetera, and that’s what people are doing today.”
Also on the panel were Rabbi Sarah Bassin of HIAS, Rafi Forbush, the founder and executive director of the Multiracial Jewish Alliance of Minnesota, and Rachel Galanter, a program coordinator for El Futuro, which aims to provide culturally-sensitive mental health services to Spanish-speaking immigrants.
Forbush shared that he and his family recently left their Minneapolis home for safety reasons — Forbush had been pulled over and questioned by ICE agents. As a result, he felt the need to discuss with his 4-year-old daughter what to do if that happened again.
“It really shook [me],” Arian said of hearing Forbush’s story. “It’s one thing to read about it, or even to see somebody interviewed on TV, and it’s another thing to hear it from somebody who’s lived it.”
Arian is no stranger to the hardships endured by immigrants to the U.S. — he volunteers to drive and accompany immigrants to their ICE appointments and court hearings. He is also a member of the Conservative/Masorti Social Justice Commission, which is active in immigrant rights.
Shaffert said that while times are difficult at the moment, it’s important to look forward.
“It’s such a hard time right now,” she said. “We have to focus not only on all of the needs and all of the problems, but also [remember] that we make progress, that there have been victories in our courts that are moving us towards justice and that are helping individuals.”
