A Conversation with Mark Hetfield, President of HIAS, and Ralston Deffenbaugh, Former President, Global Refuge (formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service).

Welcoming and protecting strangers are core Jewish values and important tenets of all major religions. These values are being tested as the Trump administration seeks to ban all refugees from our country and end refugee assistance abroad. Faith-based organizations such as HIAS (founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and Global Refuge which work to resettle refugees are being forced to reckon with severe budget cuts and a drastically changed legal and foreign relations landscape.

Join us for a conversation about the situation refugees face today and what we can do to help,  As the heads of two of the most important faith-based refugee assistance agencies in the world, Mark Hetfield and Ralston Deffenbaugh have long and deep experience in addressing all of the complexities of international refugee relief and the opposition thereto. After their presentation there will be a question and answer period, moderated by Rabbi Treu.

This program is open to the public, but pre-registration (below) is necessary as a light meal will be served.  For those unable to attend, the program will be livestreamed.

Mark Hetfield first joined HIAS as a refugee caseworker in Rome, Italy, to assist Soviet Jews applying to immigrate to the United States as refugees.  He has worked for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and a large law firm as an immigration attorney.  He has held multiple roles at HIAS over the years.  Named HIAS’ President and CEO in 2013, Mark led HIAS’s transformation from an international nonprofit that helped refugees because they were Jewish to one that helps refugees of all faiths because we are Jewish.

Ralston Deffenbaugh retired in June 2017 after seven years’ service as the Lutheran World Federation’s Assistant General Secretary for International Affairs and Human Rights. Previous to that, he served 18 years as President of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (the U.S. Lutheran churches’ agency for resettling refugees and working with asylum seekers, unaccompanied refugee children, and persons in immigration detention), six years as head of the Lutheran Office for World Community (representing LWF at UN headquarters in New York), and four previous years at LWF Geneva (also handling international affairs advocacy).

This program is presented by the Oheb Shalom Social Justice Initiative.