New Haven responded to the call to help ‘New Americans’

In response to the article in the Ledger on New Americans from the former Soviet Union (“Connecticut’s Jewish Communities Care for Its Aging ‘New American’ Population,” May 1, 2015), the coordinators of our program prior to Yelena Gerovich were Lew Lehrer and Bella Galinovsky and later Caryl Kligfeld, who arranged for housing, welcoming committees, household furnishings, job placements, schools and synagogue and JCC membership. One of the most emotional events was the Jewish marriage ceremony under a chupah for two dozen or more couples as the entire community wished them mazel tov!

The New Haven refugee resettlement program began in the 1970s and received its largest influx of refugees at any one time in the summer of 1979, when 60 refugees arrived together, mostly from Kiev. By the time the last refugee arrived in 2004, the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven had resettled 1,800 refugees from the former Soviet Union.

Mishkan Israel was the first congregation to step forward to co-sponsor a family but they were certainly not the only, and B’nai Jacob, Emanuel, Or Shalom and Beth Sholom as well as private individuals from Westville, were all involved in this total community project of resettlement, in many cases sponsoring more than one family.

Sydney Perry
CEO
Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven

Hamas not terrorist? Really, Jimmy?

The assessment made by our embarrassing former president, as reported in the article “Jimmy Carter: Hamas not terrorists,” (Ledger, May 1, 2015), leads one to suspect he may not actually be antisemitic but rather senile or delusional. Of course, those properties are not mutually exclusive.

Alan Stein, Ph.D.
Founder, PRIMER-Massachusetts
President Emeritus, PRIMER-Connecticut
Promoting Responsibility In Middle East Reporting
Natick, Mass.
Netanya, Israel

I don’t think that Jimmy Carter is above lying to push his anti-Israel agenda. But, if Khaled Meshal did say that he supports the peace process, you can be sure that he hopes that Israel will continue to be pressured to make one-sided concessions that will weaken her and pave the way for Hamas to achieve its goal – the destruction of the Jewish state.

Toby F. Block
Atlanta, Ga.