Saskatoon’s The Star Phoenix has a very uplifting article on the joint efforts of the Congregation Agudas Israel and the Islamic Association of Saskatchewan to sponsor a Syrian refugee family to resettle in Saskatchewan, Canada. The two organizations have formed the Children of Abraham Refugee Sponsors of Saskatoon to work through the private sponsorship process.

Omaer Jamil, president of the Islamic Association of Saskatchewan, is quoted as saying;

“One of the things is to break down the stereotypical idea of Muslims and Jews not being able to get along,” he said.

“The other is to help bring in a Syrian family — it’s just a good thing to do, a benefit for everybody involved. There are people suffering. If we can help them in any way, we’d love to do it.”

Harold Schiffman, president of Congregation Agudas Israel mentions past history, and the difficulty some European Jews had in seeking refuge in Canada during the Second World War.

“From a personal perspective, one of the difficult things is, I know there were opportunities for more Jews to come to Canada during the Mackenzie King era and some boats were turned away. I don’t want to see that sort of thing happen again,”

To read the entire article click here.

CBC News has an article on the efforts of Vancouver based Sholom Temple, a Jewish congregation, to sponsor two Syrian refugee families to resettle in Canada. To date members of the congregation have raised over CND $40,000 towards the sponsorship effort.

Rabbi Dan Moskovitz is quoted in the article;

It says 36 times in the Bible in the Old Testament to love the stranger…You don’t repeat something 36 times in the Bible unless it’s really, really important, and this is our obligation to see ourselves as them and to do what we can to save lives

While acknowledging that some members of the congregation had concerns about the sponsorship effort, considering the decades of hostilities between Israel and Syria, and the wide prevalence of antisemitism in the Middle East, Rabbi Moskovitz expressed his hope that the “effort will also work towards peace between Jews and Syrians.”

One by one, family by family, we can build bridges of understanding and hopefully reduce, at least on the micro scale, the conflict between the peoples

To read the entire article, click here.

Canadian Jewish News has an article on the sponsorship of no less than four Syrian families by members of the Montreal-based Congregation Dorshei Emet.

Working with the Syrian Kids Foundation, four families with relations in Montreal are currently being sponsored by the congregation of less than 500 members.

Read the entire article here.