In light of the desperate plight of refugees pouring into Europe to find sanctuary, the Rabbinical Assembly has joined with many other organizations signing on to the Syria Coalition. All information for Jewish organizations is being channeled through the Joint Distribution Fund and the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief (JCDR). Donations can be sent to the JCDR through their website http://www.jdc.org/jcdr/ where a comprehensive list of sponsoring organizations, resources and information can be found.
We have reached out to our colleagues in Europe and will be including their reports in RA News over the next weeks. We began with a report from Rabbi Gesa Ederberg from Berlin who writes about the involvement of her community and continue this week with a report from Rabbi Yehudit (Ute) Steyer, now serving the Jewish community in Stockholm as the rabbi at the Great Synagogue which is affiliated with Masorti.
Ute reports: "We have already sponsored a fair that raised money and collected clothes, shoes and toys. It was an amazing turnout. Most refugees aim to come to Germany and Sweden. Sweden, with a population of less than 9 million, is expecting 100,000 refugees to seek asylum. Every day a few hundreds of refugees arrive at the Centralstation in Stockholm but this is just the beginning. The bulk of people haven't started to come yet but it will soon get really busy here." She promises to write more after the haggim. And we hope to hear from other colleagues in Europe about experiences in their communities. We wish them the very best and are extremely grateful that they are doing what they happen to help this massive refugee crisis which resonates so profoundly with Jews all over the world.