local
Synagogues Continue Aiding
Afghan Refugees Two Years After
Taliban Takeover
6 JUNE 8, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
Germantown Jewish
Centre volunteers at a
picnic honoring the Afghan
refugees they assisted
warehouse of sorted donations to stock
temporary refugee housing, many of which
are Airbnbs.

In the past month and a half, MLRT has
provided supplies to 70 refugees from Iraq,
Guatemala, Eritrea, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan, accord-
ing to congregant and volunteer Linda Brock.

MLRT ensures that the items donated
are high quality and culturally relevant to
HIAS PA honors members of Mishkan Shalom and St.

refugees. If an incoming family is Muslim,
Vincent with the Golden Door Award for their efforts to
they likely have little need for a set of wine
help resettle Afghan refugees.

glasses. The bulk of resettlement efforts take place
“I had people say to me, ‘I think this is too good
for a refugee’, and it’s the most hurtful thing I’ve ever within three months of a refugee family arriving in
heard,” Brock said. “There might be something they Philadelphia. Working with a HIAS PA case manager,
volunteers from faith communities pick up refugees
don’t need, but it’s not because it’s too good.”
Like MLRT, GJC, Mishkan Shalom and St. Vincent from the airport and drop them off at their temporary
had outstanding relationships with HIAS PA before home with a culturally appropriate hot meal in tow.

the influx of Afghan refugees arrived in Philadelphia. While some volunteers may help to meet medical
Mishkan Shalom and St. Vincent are part of the New or education needs, others provide pro bono legal
Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia, a grassroots counsel. According to Kat, about 600-700 volunteers
have assisted HIAS PA in an ongoing capacity.

immigrants advocacy effort.

After their first 90 days in the U.S., refugees
In recent years, HIAS PA has increased outreach to
faith organizations to bolster volunteer resettlement may need additional assistance. HIAS PA provides
efforts. Afghan refugees are still arriving in Philadelphia. more intensive case management for vulnerable
“Though the issue is no longer in the forefront of populations and provides English language learning
the news, we still continue to welcome new families opportunities.

Synagogues such as GJC also work with HIAS PA
who are navigating this experience now,” HIAS PA
Community Engagement Specialist Anneke Kat said. in immigrant advocacy work. GJC has participated
Many refugees from Afghanistan arrived in the U.S. in the national Refugee Shabbat program and has
under the status of humanitarian parole, which is not had congregants meet with members of Congress to
a guaranteed path to citizenship, unlike the refugee discuss immigration bills.

HIAS PA continues to look for volunteers. ■
resettlement program. Afghan evacuees undergo
the process of seeking asylum, at which point they
can apply for a green card.

srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com Courtesy of Lenny Thompson
A ug. 15 will mark two years since the Taliban
entered Kabul, Afghanistan, seizing the
presidential palace and overthrowing the
government, leading to hundreds of thousands of
Afghan evacuees seeking refuge in the U.S.

Though no longer in the news cycle, efforts to
support and rehome refugees in Philadelphia have
not ceased. Jewish congregations, in partnership
with other faith groups, have led the charge to assist
Aghans seeking help in the area.

“We know from our experience as Holocaust survi-
vors, as pogrom survivors, what it’s like, how difficult it
is to adjust to a new land,” said Judi Bernstein-Baker,
former executive director of HIAS Pennsylvania and
head of Mishkan Shalom’s Refugee and Immigrant
Rights Committee.

When three Afghan refugees arrived in Philadelphia
a year ago, Mishkan Shalom stepped up to help them.

Mishkan Shalom has worked alongside St. Vincent
de Paul Catholic Church in Germantown to help the
refugee men find temporary housing and jobs and
navigate the U.S. education and medical system. A
couple of months ago, a congregant donated a used
car to a refugee. Another helped him learn to drive.

The congregations raised $2,000 to support the trio.

In April, HIAS PA honored Mishkan Shalom and St.

Vincent with the Golden Door Award for their work in
assisting the refugees.

Germantown Jewish Centre is helping refugees in
similar ways. The synagogue’s refugee and immigrant
support committee resettled an Afghan family last May
and organized a synagogue-wide supply drive to stock
the family’s temporary housing. Congregants visit the
family’s home twice a week to tutor their three children.

“The mom of the family grew up where the Taliban
would not let girls go to school, so she’s preliterate
in her own language,” said Naomi Klayman, part of
GJC’s refugee and immigrant support committee.

“And we have a couple of tutors who are working
with her to help her learn English.”
GJC plans to resettle another family in July.

Main Line Reform Temple in Wynnewood has
collected donations for refugees and immigrants
— not just Afghans — to furnish their temporary
homes. MLRT volunteers have organized donation
collections for the past 13 years. HIAS PA visits the
Courtesy of Ivan Rosenberg
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer



SWEATER MILL-EXP-JUNE.qxp_S MILL 6/3/23 2:26 PM Page 1
local Holocaust
Awareness Museum
Distributing Art to
Local Schools
Jarrad Saffren | Staff Writer
Photo by Lisa Marlowe
T he piece is called
“Entrance to Birkenau,”
and it shows a snowy train
track running through an
opening in a dark building
and into a vast darkness
beyond. It’s enough to send
a chill down your spine.

“Entrance to Birkenau,” of
course, refers to the most
infamous Nazi concentration
camp there was: Auschwitz-
Birkenau, which was actually
“a complex of over 40
concentration and extermi-
The display at Cheltenham High School
nation camps” where almost
featuring “Entrance to Birkenau”
1 million Jews went to die,
Recent estimates by the Holocaust
according to its Wikipedia page. But this
sculpture is not designed to teach you Survivors’ Rights Authority and the
those historical facts. Instead, it’s built Anti-Defamation League put the number
to give you something perhaps more of remaining survivors at less than
200,000 between the United States
valuable: an impression.

Such is the power of high-quality and Israel. Marlowe said the Holocaust
art. That’s why the Elkins Park-based Awareness Museum and Education
Holocaust Awareness Museum and Center, or HAMEC, used to communi-
Education Center is displaying this sculp- cate with 40 survivors. Today, that group
ture at nearby Cheltenham High School. is down to five.

It is getting harder to organize visits by
In Cheltenham’s main lobby, students
can walk up to “Entrance to Birkenau” survivors to local schools, so Holocaust
and see it inside a glass case along- education needs to take new forms. This
side other Holocaust items. Teachers effort becomes even more important in
will hopefully bring students there an era of rising antisemitism. The ADL
during class periods starting next year, recorded more antisemitic incidents in
according to Lise Marlowe, the program the U.S. in 2022, 3,697, than in any year
and outreach director for the museum. since it started keeping track in 1979.

Marlowe coordinated the placement of This spring, a local township that doesn’t
the piece with Cheltenham Township even have a synagogue or Jewish
School District officials. She hopes to Community Center, Tredyffrin, Chester
organize similar displays at other schools. County, has seen swastikas pop up at
The Abington School District and the a shopping center, middle school and
Downingtown Area School District are neighborhood, among other locations.

among local districts that have relation-
Earlier this year, Gratz College and
ships with the museum, according to Theatre Ariel organized performances of a
Marlowe. play about 10 Holocaust survivors, called
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“Survivors,” at local schools including in
Springfield Township. Christina Photiades,
an English teacher at Springfield Middle
School, told the Jewish Exponent in April
that she hoped her students walked away
from the show with “a greater sense
of empathy for all of the survivors and
victims of the Holocaust.”
A piece of art can have the same
impact, according to Marlowe, who is
also an elementary school teacher in the
Cheltenham district.

“The goal is, since it’s a three-dimen-
sional piece especially, that the kids
kind of walk into history,” she said. “They
feel like they’re walking through the
footsteps of these survivors.”
“Entrance to Birkenau” was created
by the late Frank Root, a Philadelphia-
based artist who was not Jewish. His
wife, Ruth Joray, was, and, at the funeral
of her mother, Sadie Silverman, he had
a vision. While standing in a cemetery,
Root saw a group of people who were
bound together ascending. It looked
like they had risen from a concentration
camp, according to Joray.

After his vision, the artist went to Gratz,
looked up images of the Holocaust and
became “engrossed,” his wife recalled.

He spent the next two decades on about
40 sculptures about the Holocaust, his
“Journey into Darkness” series. Joray
said the pieces were displayed between
30 and 40 times, and when survivors
saw them, they would often approach
Root and ask, “How did you know?”
Root died in 2015, and his wife still had
the sculptures. She wanted to donate his
work so those feelings would live on. But
none of the institutions that showcased
the artist’s pieces had room for a collec-
tion. But then Joray read an article in
The Philadelphia Inquirer about Marlowe
teaching the Holocaust to her elemen-
tary school students.

She reached out to the HAMEC volun-
teer, who came to her house. Joray
invited her into the basement. When they
got downstairs, Marlowe saw the pieces
and “started crying,” Joray recalled.

HAMEC has 16 other Root sculptures.

They are the pieces that Marlowe plans
to distribute to local schools. She hopes
to get them up by September for the
start of the new school year.

“To keep it not just for a week in their
minds, but to keep it in their minds
hopefully on a daily basis,” Marlowe said
of students. ■
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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