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By David Swindle
(DECEMBER 27, 2023 / JNS) “With growing antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred around the world, HIAS will not stray from our mission,” said the head of the nonprofit, Mark Hetfield.
HIAS generated critical headlines earlier this month when Ashley Chteh, a volunteer at HIAS Pennsylvania, was recorded helping to burn an Israeli flag and saying “Down with the Nazi regime.”
The nearly 145-year-old nonprofit founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society quickly noted that HIAS Pennsylvania was an independent partner of HIAS. “This person is not and never has been affiliated with HIAS, and is no longer affiliated with HIAS PA,” it stated. “We strongly condemn antisemitism in all its forms. Hate has no place in our world.”
HIAS has been drawing additional criticism, including that it has contributed to rising antisemitism stateside since Hamas’s terror attacks in Israel.
“Sadly, since Oct. 7, HIAS has again failed to prioritize Jewish safety, as HIAS did in decades gone by,” Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, told JNS. “HIAS works to bring Muslims to America, most of whom are Jew-haters and Israel-haters.”
On Oct. 7, HIAS posted: “We are horrified by the attack against civilian populations in Israel on Shemini Atzeret, one of Judaism’s holiest days. Civilians throughout the region are living in fear of even more violence, more suffering and more loss.” It has since posted that it is “heartbroken by the violence that continues to devastate Israeli and Palestinian families.”
The nonprofit was “originally set up by Jews to help fellow Jews for reasons of religious imperative and communal solidarity,” and worked to help the American Jews find relatives in Europe post-World War II.
Today, its mission has changed. It is now “a multi-continent, multi-pronged humanitarian aid and advocacy organization with thousands of employees dedicated to helping forcibly displaced persons around the world in keeping with the organization’s Jewish ethical roots,” per the HIAS website. It has also quoted the Talmud on X.
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