28 | MARCH 23 • 2023 

O

n Aug. 17, 2022, when Amanda 
Fahim, co-sponsorship 
coordinator at Jewish Family 
Services in Ann Arbor, and Spanish 
translator Zachary Kaiser drove to 
Detroit Metropolitan Airport to pick 
up a refugee family from Colombia, 
they were cognizant of 
how overwhelming the 
experience would be. Fahim, 
after all, had been through 
this process countless times. 
The family, a mom, dad 
and two teenage children, 
were facing human rights 
violations in their home country. After 
some 20 hours of travel, they arrived 
with some of their personal items and 
were transported to their temporary 
hotel room. 
At the extended-stay hotel, where the 
family would spend the next two weeks, 
a behind-the-scenes team was busy at 
work, stocking the fridge and cabinets 
with supplies. They ordered a meal from 
a local Central American restaurant and 
set up a laptop for the family to use. A 

handmade card on the hotel counter 
read “Bienvenido a Ann Arbor.”
The volunteers are part of a Herculean 
effort to resettle this family, an effort 
that began long before anyone arrived at 
DTW, even before the volunteers knew 
they would be instrumental in helping 
this specific family get a chance at a new 
life in Michigan. 

MEET THE FOLKS AT JCOR
These volunteers are part of a collective 
called JCOR, Jewish Congregations 
Organized for Resettlement, made up of 
six member congregations: Beth Israel 
Congregation, Temple Beth Emeth, Ann 
Arbor Orthodox Minyan, Ann Arbor 
Reconstructionist Congregation, Jewish 
Cultural Society and Pardes Hannah. 
JCOR, recently recognized by the 
Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor 
in its inaugural Pillar Award, is part of a 
pilot co-sponsorship program initiated 
by Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw 
County — a social service agency that 
has been instrumental in resettlement 
efforts since 2008. JFS has helped 

resettle more than 240 refugees in the 
years 2021-2022 and is set to increase 
its capacity significantly for 2023 to 
help resettle 450 refugees, according 
to Fahim. JFS was a co-recipient of the 
Pillar Award. In this co-sponsorship 
model, congregations need to raise 
$10,000 to $20,000 and enlist and train 
20 to 30 volunteers who help resettle a 
refugee family for up to 12 months. 
Fast forward eight months. The 
Colombian family now lives in an 
apartment in Ann Arbor. The family’s 
teenage children attend school and 
have made friends. One of the children 
serves as the family’s translator due to 
her rapid acquisition of English. Both 
parents are employed and potentially 
looking for second jobs to accelerate 
their financial independence. They are 
working on getting their driver’s licenses, 
and volunteers are hard at work helping 
the family understand the American tax 
system and how to secure an affordable 
used car. 
Both JFS and the volunteers at JCOR 
consider this effort a success. 

Amanda 
Fahim

What does it take to resettle a refugee family? 
What does it take to resettle a refugee family? 
It Takes a Jewish Village

LAURA PASEK CONTRIBUTING WRITER

OUR COMMUNITY

MIRA SUSSMAN

