Submitted by Isaac M. Wise Temple
In February 2022, six members of an Afghan family seeking refuge in the United States stepped off a plane at CVG Airport. The family’s private sponsor, Isaac M. Wise Temple, was there to greet them in the form of a sponsor circle comprised of nine congregants: Sherri Weiss, Sandy Rubin, Rick Seibold, Carol and Ken Kabel, Danielle and Ken Revelson, Amanda Rosenberg and Sandy Spinner. These volunteers were ready to devote themselves to the task of guiding this family through the maze of a new life in a culture very different from the one they left behind. (Note that the family is not named here to protect family members still residing in Afghanistan.)
For its exceptional volunteer work and leadership supporting this Afghan refugee family, Wise Temple has been recognized as the only synagogue in Ohio to receive a first annual HIAS Pathway Leadership Award. HIAS, the global Jewish nonprofit organization engaged in refugee resettlement, advocacy, and education work, has established the Pathway Awards to recognize recipients for “their outstanding work on behalf of refugees, asylum seekers, and other forcibly displaced people.”
In the year following the family’s arrival in Cincinnati, the Wise Temple sponsor circle worked tirelessly to help the family settle into their new lives. From the basics of finding housing, jobs, schools, and medical care, to acquiring driver’s licenses, navigating the grocery store and learning English, the sponsor circle spent countless hours helping the family make Cincinnati feel like home. Although the members of the sponsor circle were the faces of the endeavor, the entire congregation supplied the family with needed supplies for their new life.
Senior Rabbi Lewis Kamrass notes, “Always responsive to human needs, our congregation was never more generous than here.” Congregants quickly responded when they learned about the plan for Wise Temple to be a private sponsor, and generous donations of thousands of dollars poured in. Congregants also volunteered goods and services such as medical, dental and vision care, and provided transportation. There were also donations, large and small, of household items (including furniture, dishes and linens) and even a used car for the family. Errands were run, and job contacts provided. Every need was met with generosity of spirit as well as material.
When speaking about the award, sponsor circle member Sherri Weiss shared, “what has been so rewarding is for my children to see how important it is to be involved in a mitzvah such as this, and to work to make a difference in the lives of people who need our help.”
At a special Shabbat ceremony in January 2023, Wise Temple formally welcomed the family as they reflected on their journey since that winter day only a year earlier. In a moving comparison of their experiences in Afghanistan and the U.S., children in the family enumerated ways in which the U.S. felt like a better place to live, including physical and financial security, law abidingness of citizens, equal treatment and less institutionalized discrimination, equality between men and women, job and educational opportunities, abundance of water and electric service, along with other elements of daily life, including paved roads, public health and cleanliness, green spaces, clothing and grocery stores.
“It has been an honor to help this family acclimate to their new home and life in Cincinnati after having to flee their home and their country,” says sponsor circle member Carol Kabel. “Both of my parents were refugees who came to the U.S., so it has been personally gratifying for me to be able to assist the family as others surely did for my mother and my father.”
Danielle Revelson, one of the sponsor circle members who helped the family navigate through much of the governmental requirements notes, “I so appreciated the opportunity to help the family secure their green cards as a step toward future citizenship. The big bonus for me has been the close relationships we’ve developed in the process.”
After over two-and-a-half years in the U.S., the family is well on their way to settling into their new lives. One adult son is now working as an applications developer and project development engineer. The eldest son is studying for his master’s degree at Columbia University. The daughter has graduated from a local high school and is beginning her college career at The Ohio State University this fall. The youngest son is now attending high school. Meanwhile, their parents continue to work hard to become fluent in English.
The congregation of Wise Temple, led by the refugee sponsor circle, is extremely proud to accept the inaugural HIAS Pathway Leadership Award.
