In the sweetness of summertime, JCOR’s family is making strides and JCOR is looking forward.
The father of JCOR’s current refugee family—our third—has secured his driver’s license and is working full-time-plus. The mother of the family is beginning her new part-time job this month. The parents and their 14-year-old son are accelerating their English as a second language efforts and all three boys are splitting the summer between riding bikes, playing with friends, summer studies, and hitting a nearby pool as often as possible including to celebrate the Fourth of July. They help Mom around the house sometimes, too.
The high point of summer so far was the day the family’s car arrived. This little miracle was made possible by the neighbor of a JCOR volunteer who stepped forward to donate his 20-year-old, 40,000-mile Toyota to JCOR. Thanks to his generosity, the family has the autonomy that personal transportation provides in a community like Ann Arbor where public transportation is challenging.
“Please tell all the people at JCOR how much we appreciate all of the things you are doing to help us begin our lives here,” the father said recently through a translation app. “It is very important to us.”
“For decades, I have not seen such joy in [my husband’s] eyes as I saw when he got the car. You must know how important and happy a moment it was for us,” the family’s mother added.
It is rewarding to know that the support of our six collaborating congregations will be part of this Syrian family’s American origin story.
JCOR will continue to work with this family through January 2025 as they move steadily forward in their pursuit of independence. Simultaneously, we will begin plans for our fourth family. In coming weeks, we will start the process of soliciting donations and contributions of furnishings for our next refugee family’s new home. If you would like to volunteer with us in the fall, please let us know, either by contacting your congregational representative or at jcorannarbor.org.
Jewish Congregations Organized for Resettlement (JCOR) is an all-volunteer collaboration among six Ann Arbor area congregations: Ann Arbor Orthodox Minyan, Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation, Beth Israel Congregation, Jewish Cultural Society, Pardes Hannah, and Temple Beth Emeth who work in partnership with Jewish Family Services to help newly arrived refugees begin their lives in the Ann Arbor area.