HIAS is creating “Together in Welcome” – a month of community vigils in cities and states across the country between June 6th and July 6th to reclaim our national commitment to welcome.
Many Kindertransport survivors and their families were helped by HIAS, before, during, and after World War II, and we join with them today. We, our parents or grandparents were once unaccompanied child refugees, saved by being able to escape to the few countries that allowed Kindertransport children safe haven, while many family members found no refuge and were murdered in the Holocaust. We were refugees, we believe in welcome.
June 6th marks the anniversary of when the MS St Louis was turned away from US shores in 1939 and July 6th is the day in 1798 the Alien Enemies Act was signed. Between these dates, we celebrate World Refugee Day on June 20th.
From refugees on the St. Louis sent into the hands of Nazis to asylum seekers deported to an El Salvadoran prison, the United States has experienced historical lows in which we have abandoned core values and succumbed to xenophobia. When leaders weaponize law and bureaucracy against those seeking safety, it hurts us all. These vigils are a declaration to the public and the elected leaders who represent us that we will not relinquish our identity as a nation that welcomes immigrants and thrives because of them.
