Chabad Comforts Syrian Refugees

By Ken Borsuk – Greenwich Time

GREENWICH — It was by the silence that rabbi Yossi Deren knew his students were ready to reach out to a victim of ISIS’s genocide against the Yazidi people.

“It wasn’t what they said. It was their silence and their intense concentration as they heard Don tell the story,” Deren said. “It shows that care and compassion is inherent to every human being but that it needs to be cultivated.”

Students at the Sunday Hebrew School at Chabad of Greenwich have written cards and letters of support and kindness to Yasmin, a 16-year-old girl who is currently in a hospital in Germany.

Held captive along with more than 1,000 other women and children after a 2014 ISIS attack on the Yazidi community in northern Iraq and after multiple rapes, she doused herself with gasoline and set herself on fire to be less attractive to her attackers.

The story was first brought to the attention of Chabad by Greenwich resident and journalist Don Snyder, who became aware of Yasmin’s plight through his own reporting about ISIS atrocities. He had interviewed Jan Kizilhan, a German trauma expert who has worked with girls like Yasmin.

“As a Jew, I have always felt a special obligation to expose the suffering of minorities,” Snyder said. “ISIS has been waging a war of genocide against the Yazidi people.”

Snyder said he approached Chabad because he felt it was a moral imperative to speak out and get local religious groups involved in keeping such atrocities front and center.

In Deren, Chabad’s spiritual leader and executive director, and Chani Feldman, Chabad of Greenwich’s Hebrew school director, he found kindred spirits.

“She’s all alone and she’s not comfortable going back to school because of how she looks,” Feldman said. “It’s very isolating for her in Germany because she’s in a new place and doesn’t know the language of the people.

”It was suggested to us that we might write letters to make her feel better and it sounded like a wonderful idea,” Feldman said. “We wanted the kids to learn that there is so much bad out there but if we work together we can bring goodness in the world.”

Feldman said she was floored by the response from her students.
So far, more than 60 cards have been made by students ranging from first- to seventh-graders sending well wishes and their love. Several of the kids included their email addresses with the hope of starting a pen pal relationship with Yasmin.

“Don really wanted us to figure out how we, as an organization, can help refugees,” Feldman said. “Since he has the contact with the doctor in Germany who is treating refugees as they come in, he is able to get the letters to her. Don didn’t want her to feel alone. He wanted her to feel like someone cares about her.”
Deren, who also teaches students in fifth- through seventh-grade, said he was moved by the response of the students, repeating an adage from the Talmud, “I learn much from my teachers and most from my students.”

While the older students were told of Yasmin’s plight, younger students were encouraged to empathize with all refugees, especially in places like Iraq and Syria.

“We spoke about how we have to be here for each other,” Feldman, who taught the students in first- through fourth-grade, said. “We learned a song about carrying on shoulder to shoulder and standing together and we went through the idea that these people don’t have a home. I asked the kids to imagine what would happen if they had to leave their home and leave everything including their friends and families behind.”

“This is such an important message for Judaism,” she said. “Doing a mitzvah for another and being kind and having that warmth and love when you care for another human being is vital to learn.”

Snyder said he wants more religious groups to reach out to Yasmin and do what they can to aid the Yazidis. Right now, only Chabad has accepted the challenge.
“In the political climate we’re at now, it’s very important to see through the fog and remember there is so much good that can be done and we should do it as soon as we see the opportunity that has been given,” Deren said.