This presentation will focus on the Canadian Jewish community’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis and put it in the context of previous such events. Our presenters have a full range of policy and implementation experience. We will describe previous refugee crises, Canada's policies at the time and the role played by the Jewish community. The Executive Director of JIAS (Jewish Immigrant Aid Services) Toronto will talk about JIAS’ work with over 34 Jewish community groups, families and members of congregations to privately sponsor Syrian refugees. We will describe how these groups evolved and the issues they have faced. Some of them have inspiring stories of how they came to sponsor and how they formed and grew their partnership groups. We will hear directly from members of several of these groups who will describe their own experience and successes.
