Remembering Refugees

During the festival of Sukkot, we collected non-perishable food items for those in need - donating them to the Sussex Refugees Association, established in 1997 to promote the welfare and well-being of all asylum-seekers and refugees in the area. In 1998 the SRA opened a Resource Centre in Hove, which relocated to Kemp Town in May 2000. As the SRA flyer puts it, "Refugees and asylum seekers are people… who face the trauma of fleeing their homes and who have to come to terms with a new and unfamiliar country." The Resource Centre provides advice, information and support. It also provides a focal point for liaison with the many other agencies involved.

The Torah reminds us, again and again that we were 'strangers in the land of Egypt'. We were strangers in the land of Egypt - and the rest: Babylon; Spain; France; Italy; Germany; Austria; Czechoslovakia; Hungary Poland; Russia; India; Africa; North America ; South America; Australia…I don't have the space to list all the countries where we came as refugees, but, of course, it includes England, too. During November, we recall Kristalnacht, 'the night of broken glass' in Germany, on 8th/9th November 1938, and remember both all those slaughtered by the Nazis during the Shoah, and also all 'the lucky ones who got away' - the refugees. But Kristalnacht was not the first dark November night for our people. And if we just focussed on the issue of refugees alone - leaving aside other persecutions - we discover four other key November dates, when our forbears were forced to flee their homes: the 1st in 1290, when the Jews of England were expelled; the 3rd in 1394, when the Jews of France were driven out; the 9th in 1526, when the expulsion of the Jews of Hungary began; the 23rd in 1510, when the Jews of Naples were banished.

On November 14th Chana Moshenska will come to the synagogue to speak to us about the plight of refugees (Erev Shabbat Oneg, 'Welcome to Brighton?'). The 'strangers' who arrive in England each year become our 'neighbours', and yet we not only ignore their needs, we also forget that we of all people 'know the nefesh - the innermost being - of the stranger' (Exodus 23:9). Surely, the time has come for us not only to donate food items at Pesach and Sukkot, but to give our time and our energies to support the strangers who live here in our midst? Come along on the 14th and find out what you can do.


© Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah