Refugee Resettlement Project

Congregation Shearith Israel strives to be a welcoming community of Jewish learning and spirituality in all that we do. Our efforts to support immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers are an extension of that work. Learn more about efforts underway, upcoming events and how congregants and the larger community can get involved.

Current VOLUNTEER Opportunities:

• Shearith Israel is currently working with The Global Village Project, a school in Decatur for girls ages 11-18 who have experienced an interruption in their educational experience due to war or displacement. It is the only school in the country dedicated to meeting the educational needs of refugee young women, ensuring that they are equipped with the tools they need to pursue their dreams. Volunteer opportunities include preparing and serving lunch for the girls, tutoring and mentoring students.  

• Shearith Israel for Good is also partnering with Friends of Refugees to help refugee moms give their babies a healthy start. Embrace Refugee Birth Support provides education, advocacy, and empowerment through childbirth classes, trained volunteer support, and culturally-contextualized community engagement. A donation bin labeled Embrace is located in the Shearith Israel lobby. The most immediate needs are:

• Used and new car seats: Used car seats must not be expired and have never been in an accident. Their preferred models for new car sears can be purchased at Walmart or Amazon.
• Honeywell 3300B air purifiers so they can hold classes safely inside.
• N95 face masks for pregnant moms to use inside appointments and at the hospital for better protection from contracting COVID. 
• Baby diapers: Pampers Newborn Swaddlers Disposable Baby Diapers, Size 1, 8 - 14 lb

Supporting Refugees, Asylum Seekers & Immigrants - Interest Form

Over the last few years members of our congregation have come together to support refugees, asylum-seekers and immigrants in a variety of ways including:

• In 2018 supporting the resettlement of a family of refugees from Eritrea in partnership with New American Pathways, an Atlanta based nonprofit helping refugees and Georgia thrive. Shearith Israel provided ongoing support for the Ahaw family for more than two years. That support included  setting up their apartment, supplying them with culturally appropriate food, raising funds to provide needed supplies, helping with cultural orientation and school registration and ongoing English language tutoring, providing dental care, taking them shopping for groceries, and arranging phone and television service.

• In 2019 coordinating a supply drive to benefit Tahirih Justice Center and assembling 105 hygiene kits. Tahirih Justice Center provides a broad range of direct legal services, policy advocacy, and training and education to protect immigrant women and girls fleeing gender-based violence.

• From 2019, together with the New Sanctuary Movement of Atlanta, Shearith Israel worked in community with two local churches, Glenn Memorial UMC and Virginia-Highland Church, to form a “cluster” of congregations to support refugees applying for asylum in the U.S. For nearly two years members of Shearith Israel provided meals and other support for an asylum-seeker on his successful journey to self-sufficiency in the United States.