opinions & letters
Here’s How We Can Help
100,000 New Ukrainian Refugees
BY ELANA BROITMAN
Photo by Billy Hathorn (talk) / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
A fter my family and I escaped
from Odessa in the mid-1970s,
an awful feeling of statelessness
settled upon me. Our family had lived
there for generations, but my parents
understood that Jews had limited
opportunities in the Soviet Union.

They resolved to leave while my sister
and I were young enough to learn a
new life, even if it meant leaving so
much behind.

I’ll never forget both the joy and
trepidation we experienced in fi nally
getting the green light to come to
America. For months after leaving,
my sister and I had to sleep on a
small sofa in a Roman suburb as
we awaited permission to enter the
United States along with so many
thousands of other Soviet Jews. We
arrived not speaking the language
and with only the minimal posses-
sions that we were able to take with
us. But the Jewish community sup-
ported us tremendously and we felt
that we were not alone.

Now, as the United States prepares
to take in 100,000 Ukrainian refu-
gees, I can’t help but refl ect on the
multiplicity of challenges that await
them and what our society will need
to do to make their transition suc-
cessful. Refugees’ entire lives have been
uprooted and upended. They need
help fi nding not just housing but
community. They need schools for
their children and emotional support
for their families, job opportunities,
transportation and language instruc-
tion. Their family relationships have
typically been subjected to a great
deal of strain. Many will need mental
health counseling.

The nonprofi t and faith-based sec-
tor has developed a tremendous
depth of expertise in providing all
these services and must play a role in
any resettlement strategy.

Take my organization, the Jewish
Federations of North America. We’ve
collectively raised more than $50
The downtown section of Brighton Beach in Brooklyn is known for its high
population of Russian-speaking immigrants and came to be known as Little
Odessa. million from across the continent to
aid Ukrainian refugees and will raise
much more in the coming weeks and
months. These funds are being directed
to four main areas: humanitarian aid
to the refugees and help with reset-
tlement in other countries; enabling
Jewish refugees to emigrate to Israel
if they wish to do so; preparing to
help the Jews of Russia and Belarus
escape if the need arises; and rebuild-
ing Ukraine after the war ends.

Right now, my focus is on resettle-
ment. More than three decades ago,
we in the Jewish community stood
proudly with New Jersey Sen. Frank
Lautenberg when he sponsored the
successful bill to allow 400,000 Soviet
Jews and other refugees to reunite
with families in the United States; it
is the Lautenberg Amendment that
the Biden administration is using to
permit some of the Ukrainian refu-
gees to come here. In recent weeks,
Federations have collaborated with
375 Jewish and interfaith partners
across North America to lobby the
government to permit refugees in.

I know from my own experience
that welcoming the stranger isn’t just
about the bare necessities — food,
clothing, shelter, transportation and
medical care. Community-based non-
profi ts are a key partner in ensuring
that these refugees get what they
need. For example, the government has
partnered with Jewish agencies and
other humanitarian organizations for
decades to help resettle refugees
in communities — a partnership that
was formalized in 1975 following the
Vietnam War. More recently, we have
helped to resettle hundreds of refu-
gees from Afghanistan and continue
to do so every day.

Jewish Federations are animated
by the core Jewish teaching that sav-
ing one life is tantamount to saving the
entire world. We know our community,
which consists of so many children,
grandchildren and great-grandchil-
dren of refugees from Eastern Europe
at the turn of the twentieth century,
could not have prospered without the
help of the communities that paved
the way for us to become American.

We stand ready to pay it forward
and help to integrate the Ukrainian
immigrants into our society using all
the resources, tools, knowledge and
experience that are at our disposal.

The emergency aid package that
Congress recently approved will pro-
vide desperately needed resources,
and the Senate should follow suit,
but that’s just a start. I hear every
day about the burdens that Ukrainian
refugees face and know that more
funding will be necessary to ensure
that they can build productive lives
here. And in the short term, many
Ukrainians are seeking work autho-
rizations so they can support them-
selves, but they face signifi cant
backlogs that require urgent atten-
tion and resources from the admin-
istration. Finally, for those who wish to remain
beyond the two years that the current
humanitarian parole program autho-
rizes, these Ukrainians must have a
path to citizenship.

I firmly believe that these
approaches will allow American non-
profi ts and volunteers to play our part
and do what we do best in welcoming
refugees and integrating them into
our communities. JE
Elana Broitman is senior vice presi-
dent of public aff airs for the Jewish
Federations of North America.

letters CRT Viewpoint Depends on Who’s Asking
In the May 26 op-ed, “Where Do Jews Fit into Critical Race Theory,” Fred L.

Pincus asks the question: Are Jews white? The answer to that depends on
who is asking the question and their opinion of whites.

Critical race theory proponents, who have a negative view of whites, will
say “yes.” White nationalists, who have a positive view of whites, will say
“no.” Neil Shapiro, Blue Bell
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