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Sisterhood Shabbat: Refugee Resettlement, Afghan Evacuation, and Beyond

Friday, February 11, 2022 • 10 Adar I 5782

7:30 PM - 9:00 PMTBE & YouTube

Please join the congregation for Shabbat worship led by Rabbi Andrea Steinberger, Dale Kaufman, and TBE Sisterhood members and featuring guest speaker Becca Schwartz, resettlement director at Jewish Social Services of Madison (JSS).

Becca will talk about her work with JSS, what we should expect for refugee resettlement in 2022, and how we can help with resettlement activities. Becca joined JSS in early 2017 to head up the new refugee resettlement program, helping newcomers establish themselves and become a part of the community in Madison. She is a Middleton native who spent over a decade working in various parts of East and West Africa. She earned a BS in industrial engineering from the University of Iowa and an MBA from Drexel University before joining the Peace Corps, where she started working in small business development. Since then she has worked in leadership positions in both social enterprise and nonprofit organizations. Becca has lived in Senegal, Uganda, Ghana, and Nigeria and now lives with her family in Madison.

JSS has a long history of refugee resettlement, tracing its roots back to the Madison Welfare Fund created in 1940 to help resettle refugees in Madison fleeing the Holocaust. It is currently the only agency in Madison providing resettlement of Afghan refugees. Through the efforts of JSS and its community partners, almost 40 evacuees from Afghanistan once housed at Ft. McCoy have already been settled in Madison, and another 30 are expected by February. Wisconsin may eventually get hundreds of Afghan refugees. To learn more about JSS’s refugee resettlement work, see this update from Becca Schwartz.

Please join us in person or via livestream through YouTube. We look forward to spending Shabbat with those who attend in person and those who join us via livestream. To view this event on livestream, go to YouTube at http://www.tinyurl.com/TBEYTLivestream. The evening will also include the dedication of two plaques to be displayed in the Judaica Shop, recognizing Lottie Frank and Sandy Dutch for their dedication and devotion to TBE Sisterhood and its gift shop. 

Sisterhood members who would like a part in the service should email Marsha Mansfield (mmansfield2824@gmail.com) as soon as possible. Please specify whether you would like a part in English or in Hebrew.

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April 20, 2024 12 Nisan 5784