Happily Reunited: Makandja and Bobasha, welcoming our Refugees!

 This week our second refugee, Bobasha, arrived at O’Hare airport on Tuesday afternoon, June 20, National Refugee Day! HIAS and JCFS made sure Bobasha was escorted to the baggage area where we arranged to meet him. There was a group of Lakeside members at the airport as well as a translator who has been working with Makandja. The translator  brought Makandja to the airport to meet his dear friend. Everything went smoothly and we were all able to witness the joy and relief that these two young men experience when they were reunited.

Makandja and Bobasha grew up together as brothers in the refugee camp in Tanzania. Although they are not birth brothers, as Makandja tells it, they ate side by side at the same table, they slept side by side under the same roof, they played together, they went to school and they shared a history that none of us can imagine. Now, they are happy to be together again.

Bobasha will share the apartment with Makandja. He will have the benefit of learning what Makandja has already learned; how to take the bus, how to use food stamps, how to get around the neighborhood, how to find his way to World Relief for English classes and other resources. They will enjoy traveling together to visit friends from home who live in the Rogers Park area and together they will be able to branch out and explore the city.

In spite of the many challenges they face they will have each other to lean on and talk to. Makandja and Bobasha will surely be happier and safer together than apart. If you want to volunteer or get involved with our Social action committee please email me: Educator@lakesidecongregaiton.org.  Join us tonight for Refugee Shabbat, Friday June 23 at 6:00 pm!

Has it only been one week since Makandja arrived in Chicago?

How can it be only a week since Makandja arrived?  There is so much to report and if you missed Makanja's welcome you can read it here

One of the most encouraging facts to report is that Makandja has friends from the refugee camp in Tanzania who are now in Chicago and who have been here four or five months already. Makanja and his friends were extremely happy to be connected to each other by the translator from JCFS (Jewish Child and Family Services). These friends will be great company and help to Makanja as he navigates his way through our complicated public transit system, food stamps and learning new language skills. 

Studying English with a snack.

There has  been a visit from his case manager at JCFS who brings a translator with her. Her name is Barbara and she will help Makandja to enroll in an English as a second language class (ESL) as well as help to get him food stamps, a medical check up, bus pass and other support necessities. Barbara is a social worker and is well trained to monitor Makandja, and to take responsibility for things we are not trained to do.

We have a core committee of volunteers in place and when Makandja's schedule is set for classes and he has done the things he needs to do to get food stamps etc, we will begin to look for more volunteers who may be interested in joining this core group of volunteers to perhaps become substitutes, alternates, or volunteer partners. 

This week Makandja had a Saturday visit from Jackie Cohen, her husband, Gary and Susan Gottlieb. They taught him how to use his microwave and his hot plate. They brought a runner that will protect his cabinet from the hot plate and toaster oven. They were happy to make this first important visit and to meet some of Makanja's friends from the camp in Tanzania.  They reported that the friends were nice, and that they were making great strides in learning English. 

At the French pastry shop in the neighborhood,
from the Left: Makanja, Barbara, Marcie, Ruti and Lisa

On Tuesday, May 30, Lisa Fisher and Marci Bearman visited Makandja and reviewed the use of appliances. We taught Makanja to use his appliances by supervising as Makanja  cooked the food himself. 

Then Makandja and his friend Ruti worked with us as we taught lessons about the names and values of currency and how to make change, as well as basic language phrases such as "may I have the book" and "I would like to buy water."We all had lots of laughs and fun with us trying to use google translate and to speak Swahili,  while they tried to use their new English skills.   

We visited local markets, and stopped in for tea, coffee and drinks at a French coffee shop where two amazing women work. Makanja and his friend Ruti speak French as well as Swahili and these woman offered their support, friendship, and their help in case of an emergency.

Then we drove the boys to a grocery store that was better stocked than the neighborhood stores and took a longer walk around Makandja's neighborhood exploring parks and meeting a pastor at a church down the street. We taught Makanja how to look for addresses on buildings as we walked past them, how to read the names on street signs and the meaning of a few traffic signs.

Then, we went back to the apartment where Lisa made more delicious food and with Ruti's help; Marcie addressed an envelope to Makandja's camp in Tanzania and showed him where to put the Universal Forever World Wide Stamp on the envelope. Then we waited while Makanja wrote a long letter home which I took to the post office and mailed this morning. 

Makanja knows how to read and write very well in both French and Swahili and he is an earnest student. I am certain he will make fast progress not only in learning English, but in learning how to conduct himself and share the gifts which are his;  a smiling, friendly personality, which he balances with a serious and sensitive disposition. He is an exceptional young man. 

Exploring the neighborhood 

He has friends from home, and will make many new friends in his neighborhood, but I hope we can find a way to bring Makandja into all of our lives. We are hoping to have a picnic in the park near where he lives this summer with soccer or football as they refer to it and we will let you know the time and place.

But first, the basics necessities need to be taken care of for Makandja,  and we at Lakeside will need to wait to establish a steady schedule of volunteers. Please let Marcie  and Lisa know if you have free days, and what your free days are if you are interested in working with Makanja. If you want to be a volunteer and work with a partner you must fill out a background check from HIAS.  Please email Vanessa: Educator@lakesidecongregation.org and she will send you the forms.

Makandja could use a friend closer to his age to play soccer with, or a friend to take an adventure by bus or train to somewhere in the city that he would not know of or be comfortable traveling to alone. The possibilities are endless especially once he is more settled. 

We will be happy to share the experience with you with our updates as they come out.  An early Shabbat Shalom and we hope you had a Happy Shavuot.  

Marcie Bearman  and Lisa Fisher

Desecrated Graveyard: What would Grandma Hetty say about this?

I am sure by now that you have read/saw on TV/viewed on the Internet about the graveyard in St. Louis which was vandalized this week.  Over 100 grave stones were pushed over and trashed.  My extended family lives in St. Louis; my mother grew up in Madison across the river.  My grandparents, great uncles and cousins are buried in that cemetery it took me a minute to put it all together to realize my family's gravestones were at risk. All at once my sister and my cousins began a flurry of emails:

Are our graves ok?
What can we do?
How can we help?

VP Pence cleaning up

We felt relieved when we heard all of our relatives graves were untouched.  It seems the vandals chose graves close to an inner cemetery road.  Our graves were deep in the cemetery.  My sister sent me pictures of our graves. There was a massive outpouring of help from the Muslim community to the Christian community and even Vice President Pence made a stop there to help clean up and say a few words.

I have been thinking about this event all week and I finally realized what was bothering me.  I was very close with my Grandma Hetty Diamond.  She lived a long time and as you can see from her grave she outlived my Grandfather Wolf, who I never met and for whom I am named.  If she knew what about the events of this week that the graves in this graveyard were vandalized because it was a Jewish graveyard I thought at first she would be incredulous.  She had come to America and became a citizen and she believed  that she lived in a great country.  My mom said I was mistaken and not for the first time corrected me: my grandmother was ahead of her time and she would not be surprised at this latest act of anti-semitism.  She read the newspaper everyday and loved whatever first lady Eleanor Roosevelt had to say; there was a picture of FDR in their house; however she lived in the small town and was aware of anti-semtisim and had probably experienced it as well.

Diamond, my grandparents

Both of my grandparents became citizens in the early forties.  My grandmother came here in 1919 after WWI and my grandfather, Wolf had come earlier and both grandparents were originally from  Manchester, England.  My grandfather died very young and my grandmother was a working mother her whole life.  She supported my mom and her older brother Louis through camp and college with help from some of the Uncle's.  Family helped family. That is the way it was.  They had only been one generation in England as my great grandparents were born in Russia.  My family kept moving from place to place to do the best for their family.

Perhaps I keep thinking about the desecration of the graveyard and my ancestors as we discuss the status of refugees in the United States today.  I am proud that at Lakeside Congregation with the help of HIAS  are sponsoring a refugee family.  We have collected all of the money, furniture, clothes and other items and we are just waiting for the travel ban to be lifted.  It is with a heavy heart I see my country putting up more road blocks for families seeking asylum.

As I talked with my mom today she said we live in troubled times, with a capital T and I agree.  We must continue to work to do what is right.  This may mean calling your representatives, marching to protest the travel ban or cleaning up a cemetery where your grandparents, great grandparents and other relatives are buried.

Grandma Hetty Diamond and me: 1972 at my Bat Mitzvah

No time like the Present: Get out and do something

This Sunday, February 12 @12:15pm  Lakeside Congregation along with Beth Am will be hosting a rally to encourage our current government to welcome Refugees.  I am proud to say that with all of the protests over the past 13  days at airports, in the streets and now at synagogues has made a difference.  The 9th circuit court of Appeals has said this travel ban (or Muslim ban) is not legal.  I am not sure, and don't think that anyone is sure how this will play out in the future.  For now we must stick to our Jewish values and realize what it is to welcome the stranger.

I have heard many "talking heads" speaking about stricter vetting.  I have learned much about the vetting process since Lakeside decided in the fall to host a refugee family.  Most refugee families have been in refugee camps for 17-20 years or longer.  They have been on lists and been vetted many times over.  When the executive order came down banning refugees the heartbreaking stories of family after family who had sold all their possessions as little as they may be  and left the refugee camp, bought winter clothes to come to America and now are even more destitute than before.

This American Life has a recent podcast on exactly what is happening with refugees trying to come to America.  It is heartbreaking to listen to and I can't imagine what it would be like to see pictures of these families devastated by the capriciousness of our government.  I have more hope now that the 9th court of appeals has lifted the ban.  My maternal grandparents came from Manchester, England via Russia and my paternal great grandparents were from Germany and Russia.  What would have happened if they had been denied access? I hope if you can't make our rally you can make another HIAS rally this weekend!