local
assistance.” But beyond sending money to reliable
sources, many advocates for Ukrainian
refugees have their hands tied, warned
HIAS Pennsylvania Executive Director
Cathryn Miller-Wilson.

“Unfortunately, right now, there’s
very little that we’re able to do,” Miller-
Wilson said.

HIAS PA is unable to begin reset-
tling Ukrainians until the U.S. gov-
ernment grants Temporary Protected
Status to those who have already fl ed to
the U.S. and asylum to those still trying
to leave the country.

For Ukranians in the U.S. on a tem-
porary visa, the lack of TPS puts them at
risk of deportation. Th ough Ukrainians
here permanently can petition for rela-
tives to immigrate, the process can take
years, and many of the U.S. consulates
in Ukraine are now closed.

Additionally, petitioning occurs
through the Lautenberg Amendment,
a federal law created in response to the
attacks on Soviet Jews, and the amend-
ment needs to be reauthorized every
year, which has not been done in 2022.

Mi l ler-Wi lson
encourages Philadelphia residents, particularly
U.S. citizens, to call their Congress
members to request that the Biden
administration grant refugee status to
Ukrainians. She hopes that as the cri-
sis evolves, the U.S. will loosen more
bureaucratic restrictions on those try-
ing to fl ee their war-torn countries.

“Don’t keep being wedded to struc-
tures that, even in the best of times, were
terrible, and now are useless,” she said
For Jews in particular, supporting
Ukrainian refugees goes beyond just
showing solidarity for Ukraine, Krug
believes. “Although it plays out in Ukraine, it’s
not about Ukraine at all,” Krug said.

Krug argued that Putin’s decision
to invade Ukraine is part of a greater
eff ort to rebuild a Soviet stronghold in
the region, an attempt that more and
more resembles the events of Nazi rule
leading up to the Holocaust.

“Every Jewish person should be very
sensitive to this issue,” he said. JE
Children from the Mishpacha Children’s Orphanage leave Odessa.

Courtesy of Moussia Goldstein
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8 MARCH 10, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM