Parshat Terumah - HIAS Refugee Shabbat

“I was particularly interested because both of my parents were Holocaust survivors, and each of them had gotten out of Germany as children and ended up as refugees. My mother in the US, my father in England, and I grew up hearing stories about all the people who had helped them. My father was alone. His parents and sister had been killed, and he was 15, and he talked about all the strangers who came together helped him find housing, helped him survive in those first few years by himself, and when I heard about the clinic, it felt like this was a way to kind of pay forward what others had done for my family.” – Steven Miller, who has been a volunteer for the Ark Immigration Clinic since 2019, spoke alongside friend of the clinic Luz as we celebrated Refugee Shabbat.

Luz, who won her asylum and joined us via Zoom, remembered that “Ark, our clinic, changed our life. So when we went to that beautiful place we meet angels and start our miracle, and they said, We will help you… And I was in thinking like, Why? Why that’s for free? Why they can do that? So that’s amazing. You don’t imagine how our life changed.”

Refugee Kabbalat Shabbat services took place on Friday, February 28, 2025 / 1 Adar 5785. Watch the full talk above. 

Be in community with CBST at Kabbalat Shabbat services, every Friday at 6:30pm EST, either in person or streaming live on CBST’s website at cbst.org/livestream. CBST is an LGBTQ+ synagogue for people of all sexual identities and genders and a joyful, spiritual, proud community. All are welcome 🌈✨