Reaching the United States as refugees is a daunting task.
Getting resettled after arrival can be just as difficult.
For nearly 10 years, the Interfaith Refugee Resettlement Committee has offered life-changing help. They have resettled Afghan and Syrian families in East Norwalk, Black Rock and Stratford.
Assistance includes finding housing, furnishings and clothing; arranging healthcare, language and driving lessons, school registrations and job interviews; providing transportation, emotional support, and much more.
One of the resettled Syrian families …
The volunteers are as diverse as the men, women and children they help. The county-wide coalition includes Westport’s Temple Israel, The Community Synagogue and Green’s Farms Congregational Church, along with First Church Congregational of Fairfield, and Norwalk’s Al Madany Center.
The families they aid gain a foothold in the area, and take the first steps toward achieving the American Dream. It’s a runway to self-sufficiency and, ultimately, full assimilation.
They return value to the community through cultural enrichment, diversity and economic growth.
… and the other.
But IIRC volunteers gain something too: the chance to work with others they might not otherwise meet, and the opportunity to pay forward the assistance that they, or their relatives, may once have received.
John McGeehan has been involved with the IIRC since its inception. He has seen the public perception of refugees shift, from sympathy to suspicion.
“Refugees are people who have been invited here. They’re thoroughly vetted by the State Department.”
“But at the national level, refugees are being conflated with all immigrants as ‘all bad,'” he says.
“That flies in the face of our heritage, as a nation of immigrants. America’s formal refugee resettlement program was the biggest in the world.”
Resettling a refugee family takes an enormous amount of time and effort (as well as money).
Last fall — after resettling an Afghan family of 11 — the IIRC was not ready to aid another one. But when the Trump administration suddenly defunded Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, a well-respected Connecticut non-profit — and placed an indefinite pause on refugee arrivals affecting more than 1,600 Afghans with flight tickets in hand, plus over 40,000 Afghans already approved for visas — IIRC decided to take on an Afghan family of 8 that IRIS had been working with.
An Afghan father and daughter, resettled in Connecticut.
“All that’s left is community involvement,” says McGeehan.
“Thirty seconds after I wrote to all the clergy” proposing to welcome the new Afghan family, he notes, “Rabbi Friedman said: ‘We’re in!'”
Temple Israel’s involvement has been significant.
So are the rewards.
A Syrian man — part of the first family the temple helped — has become an imam leading Norwalk’s mosque, Rabbi Friedman says proudly.
A “refugee Shabbat” has become a cherished tradition. Resettled Afghans and Syrians join other IIRC congregations in a night of prayer and sharing.
“This is the fulfillment of a number of Jewish principles and values,” the rabbi says. “It is an important part of who we are, and what we do.”
“All of the families in our temple came as immigrants. Often, they fled persecution. They found freedom and opportunity in the United States. It’s our responsibility to help others travel the same journey. Passover reinforces that narrative.”
He also praises the interfaith component of the IIRC, and the work of its lay volunteers. “This is what their Jewish or Christian values impel them to do.”
Through the IIRC, McGeehan says, “I and many others have become part of refugees’ families.
“We’ve met volunteers from other towns, and other faiths.
“We’ve gained an intimate understanding of our shared humanity. It really is true that ‘there but for the grace of God …”
The IIRC says, “The US has a long tradition of resettling refugees, rooted in inspiring generosity and the immigrant roots of each one of our citizens.
“There is no better way to contribute to our national self-interest and, at the same time, answer God’s call to give fearlessly.”
But, they note, their work extends beyond religion.
“Whether you see this as God’s work, or the nation’s work, the need is great. Helping to change the life of another helps repair the world.”
(To donate to the Interfaith Refugee Resettlement Committee’s fund for the Afghan family. click here. For more information on the IIRC, click here.)
For 11 years, Staples High School juniors and seniors in Suzanne Kammerman’s Advanced Placement Politics & Government class have participated in the event.
An “official” pre-construction meeting, with everyone involved in the project, is set for New Haven next Wednesday (April 16).
