Welcoming the Stranger

A group of co-sponsor volunteers welcome a family from Afghanistan at Chicago O’Hare International Airport in January 2022. Photo credit: JCFS Chicago

After the pandemic shutdown, HIAS re-emerged to support more than 70 Afghan refugees in the Chicago area

The Jewish people are no strangers to the refugee experience. With the specter of the Holocaust looming in not-so-distant collective memory, the Jewish value of “welcoming the stranger” is one that many Jews and Jewish organizations hold close to their hearts. Indeed, this value is one of the core founding principles of JCFS Chicago’s HIAS Immigration & Citizenship program, which has a decades-long history of resettling both Jewish and non-Jewish refugees in the Chicago region.

Sadly, after the slashing of refugee admissions by the previous administration, HIAS was forced to close its Refugee Resettlement Program in the summer of 2018. Fortunately, with the current administration's new commitment to this work, HIAS has since been able to reinstate its status and is now back in action relocating Afghans from a country in turmoil. The organization has already relocated some 70 refugees so far this year, and is expecting to double that number by the close of 2022.

“Our program was on hold for about two years, and when President Biden came into office, we saw it as an opportunity to reenter this line of work,” said Jessica Schaffer, Director of HIAS Immigration & Citizenship. “We had ten weeks to get everything up and running before our first family arrived in January 2022—and there were only two of us doing all the work in the very beginning.”

Arriving for various reasons ranging from political asylum to financial hardship to religious persecution, little was known about the newest crop of refugees before they arrived–other than that they all shared a yearning for a safe place to start a new life.

“Our focus is on their arrival and moving them forward,” said Schaffer. “They’ve had to prove their persecution history to come here. Our job is to help them on the path to self-sufficiency.”

Support from Walder Foundation in 2021 helped HIAS fund the hiring of two new case managers, translation services, and other administrative and programmatic expenses to ensure the organization was ready to welcome the new individuals and families with open arms—not to mention clean bedding, fresh clothes, and well-stocked kitchen pantries in their new apartments.

One of those newly hired case managers, Jamshid Daudzai, has a personal history that directly connects him to this work. “I first arrived in this country four years ago and had to depend on the support of others for the first month after my arrival,” said Daudzai, who assists the new arrivals from the moment they arrive at the airport. “I understand their feelings, and I share my own, which gives them hope and helps them feel better.”

“When they see us waiting for them at the airport—and there is often a big group of us—their faces say so much,” adds Schaffer, detailing the excitement, relief, stress, sadness, and gratitude that she has witnessed in many of the newcomers HIAS has welcomed. (The work is personal for Schaffer, too: her grandparents were Holocaust survivors, and her mother was resettled as a refugee at age 3.)

The work doesn’t stop once the refugees move into their new homes. HIAS is committed to helping each new Chicagoan become truly integrated into society. That means providing financial assistance, supplying food and warm clothing, translation and interpretation aid, health screenings and more.

“I apply for benefits on their behalf, assist them with health appointments, enroll their children into school, and refer them to ESL classes and legal assistance,” said Daudzai. And volunteers have arranged for visits to the Museum of Contemporary Art, shopping excursions to thrift shops, game nights, and tutoring, added Schaffer. “This is really their next chapter. It’s so meaningful to be a part of this and help plant the seeds that will hopefully allow for a lot of growth,” she said.