jews d

Aiding Refugees

RUDY THOMAS

Local Jews get involved
in easing Syrian families
into American life.

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

T

his winter, former State Sen. Doug Ross gath-
ered Jewish and Arabic friends together to
form “Team Alasad.” Named for a family of
five, it works to assist them as they adjust to life in
America.
The Alasad family — Samer, his wife, Haifa,
and sons Abdullah, 6, and Faid, 4, and daughter,
Hanan, 3 — received legal immigration status to
the United States after they fled from the war in
Syria and spent four years in a Jordanian refugee
camp waiting for their immigration status to
clear.
The Alasad family came from Daraa, a city
on the southern border with Jordan, not too far

ABOVE: Samer Alasad talks with Doug Ross, a for-
mer state senator, who formed Team Alasad with his
Jewish and Arabic friends to help the family settle into
American life.
TOP: The Alasad family: Samer and Haifa with their
children, Abdullah, 6, and Faid, 4, and daughter,
Hanan, 3.

from Israel’s Golan Heights. The city played a
role in the early protests against the regime of
President Bashar al-Assad and became known as
the “cradle of the revolution” when 15 boys from
prominent families were arrested for anti-gov-
ernment graffiti, Ross explained. The city quickly
became a target for government attacks.
In 2013, Samer Alasad, then 26, and Haifa,
then 22, fled Daraa with their infant son,
Abdullah, and crossed the border into Jordan.
They spent time in a refugee camp near the bor-
der until Samer found work cleaning the offices
of some Jordanian doctors. This allowed the
Alasads to leave the camp and find lodgings in
the nearby city, Ross said.
While waiting for permission through the U.N.
to attain admission into the U.S. as refugees,
both Fadi and Hanan were born.
Samer brings mechanical skills with him and
has a job working for a transportation company
repairing cars. His plan is to study to be a certi-
fied mechanic once he has mastered English.
Haifa and Samer are studying English at night

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April 27 • 2017

jn

RUDY THOMAS

on the cover

in
the

