Welcoming the Stranger

At Home with Salah & Najah: Syrian Refugees

Three years ago, Salah and his wife fled Syria with their four youngest children, and the clothes on their backs. For the past six months they’ve lived in the United States, navigating a new language, a stack of bills, and American anxieties over Muslim immigrants. Enter John and Gretchen, a retired couple working to ease their way. As political tensions rise over President Trump’s second attempt at a travel ban, we hear from the two couples about their friendship, their reality, and their fears.

Rabbi Jack Moline:  ‘All of Us Wander This World’

According to Rabbi Jack Moline, President of the Interfaith Alliance, the concept of “the stranger” strikes a deep chord for Jews who the Torah says wandered through the desert for 40 years. Rabbi Moline reminds us that wherever we live, whoever we are, our dwellings are basically temporary and our fates are somewhat random. We are all wandering in the wilderness.

The Sanctuary Movement Rises Again

The faith-based sanctuary movement has been flourishing, especially since the election of President Donald Trump. Scholar Linda Rabben, author of Sanctuary and Asylum: A Social and Political History, explains how the movement first emerged in the 1980s to help Central Americans fleeing violence. In the past year, hundreds of houses of worship have declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants, defying the law and turning their basements into bedrooms.

Listener Story: Mark Klar

Listener Mark Klar of Richmond, Kentucky shares this memory of a time he felt like a stranger. Here’s an excerpt of his story of encountering a Bedouin in the Sinai desert, as a 22-year-old traveler.

After exchanging salaam aleikums, he gestured for me to sit with him under this desiccated “tree.” He then proceeded to make a small fire, take his sack of, what turned out to be, flour, the water and mix them together. He turned over the pan, spread the dough on the back of the pan and baked pita bread. He gave me half.

We ate together while exchanging smiles. He then put out the fire and scoured the pan with sand. We got up, exchanged salaams and went on our different ways. I will never forget his kindness. A Jew and a Muslim.

The Journey to Syria to Find Her Grandmother’s Survivors

Dawn MacKeen’s grandfather, Stepan Miskjian, survived the Armenian genocide– a story that hinged on the hospitality of an Arab Muslim family that took in Miskjian as he wandering through Syria, starving and in rags. MacKeen traveled to meet the descendants of the family who saved her grandfather’s life, and then realized that the story had come full circle. Today, a grandson of that Syrian family is himself seeking refuge.  Our guest this week is Dawn MacKeen the author of The Hundred-Year Walk: An Armenian Odyssey.

 

 


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