Global Best Wishes to all of my friends in the Jewish Community
Thank You For Your Support. Sheriff Tony MancuSo
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JEWISH LIGHT
With Refugees Hit Doubly Hard By The Pandemic, Jewish Groups Step Up Aid Efforts By Michele Chabin
Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office 5400 East Broad St. • Lake Charles, LA 70615 (337) 491-3600
Thank you to all of my friends in the Jewish Community. It is an honor to be re-elected to serve our community.
Refugees in Lesbos, Greece, return from a day of learning at the IsraAID-run School of Peace. (Courtesy of IsraAID)
Judge Paulette Irons Civil District Court Division M
Best Wishes to My many Friends & Associates in the Jewish community for a happy and prosperous New Year! It is an honor to continue to serve the citizens of New Orleans.
Judge Camille Buras Criminal District Court Parish of Orleans Section H 6
Back to School
(JTA) — Nearly 80 million people around the world are refugees, asylum seekers, or internally displaced. Already marginalized and at elevated risk of malnutrition, disease and hunger, COVID-19 has made them even more vulnerable due to their poverty, overcrowded living conditions and limited access to healthcare. While in this generation very few Jews are among the displaced, the Jewish historical experience of being homeless, hungry and stateless continues to drive Jewish activists and organizations to assist. “We used to help refugees because they were Jewish; now we help refugees because we are Jewish,” said Melanie Nezer, senior vice president for public affairs at HIAS, which was founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in 1881 to assist Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe. “It’s in our DNA to help people who are displaced, given our values, our Jewish texts and our long history as refugees.” Among the displaced persons HIAS assists, more than 70 percent can no longer meet their basic needs for food, according to Nezer. That number was 15 percent before the outbreak. Mental health is also a growing concern. “Psychologically we are destroyed,” a displaced man on the Greek island of Lesbos said, according to a document provided by HIAS, which is supplying him with aid. The organization declined to provide the man’s name or identifying details, including nationality. “Our only hope was to have our asylum hearing, but with the coronavirus everything stopped. We are
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doomed to stay on this island for a long time, and no one wants that.” To meet the refugees’ COVIDrelated needs while protecting their own staff, Jewish and other humanitarian relief organizations have had to modify the services they provide and the ways they deliver aid. Many have temporarily suspended programs that required face-to-face interactions, prioritizing emergency assistance instead. In the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, the staff of IsraAID, an Israeli group that provides humanitarian assistance in 14 countries, has redirected much of its time and resources toward establishing hand-washing stations and fighting misinformation about how the virus spreads. “Residents were receiving a lot of mixed messages. We worked on educating about the virus, just as we did during the Ebola outbreak in 2014,” CEO Yotam Polizer said. Health education is also vital in South Sudan, which has just four ventilators for 11 million people. The best strategy, particularly in poor countries with no functioning health system, is to prevent infection, Polizer said. Compounding matters, the foreign health professionals who ordinarily come on medical missions and bring with them supplies and expertise are staying home to deal with their own countries’ COVID-19 crises. IsraAID was fortunate in that it already had teams on the ground — comprised of Israelis and locals, including refugees — before the pandemic’s outbreak. See REFUGEES on Page THE
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