Dec. 23, 2015: British Jewish organizations lay groundwork for influx of Syrian refugees
British Jewry is vowing to not stand idly by as restrictive British asylum policy prevents all but a tiny trickle of today’s refugees to legally reach the shores of the United Kingdom.
Earlier this month, during Hanukkah, three of Britain’s Jewish religious movements released a video announcing the launch of a campaign to reinstate private sponsorship for refugees, a mechanism that disappeared after WWII.
Like the private sponsorship of refugees currently underway by Canadian Jews, the British scheme would involve synagogues, community organizations and individuals taking responsibility for resettling Syrian families fleeing the four-year-old civil war in their country.
“One of the things that has united the Jewish communities here is the refugee crisis. Religious and lay leaders are speaking out. Nothing has been as deeply resonant for us,” said Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, a senior British Reform rabbi.
