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