NY Event: Jewish Prayer and Torah Learn-in at JFK in support of Refugees

Today, rabbinical students, rabbis, lay leaders, and people of all faiths and backgrounds will gather together at the chapel at Terminal 4 at JFK for a morning of prayer and Torah learning to offer spiritual support for those refugees who are yearning to reach our shores.

The book of Deuteronomy, chapter 10, tell us that “you must love the stranger, for you were a stranger in the land of Egypt.” Whether it be fleeing Egypt or Spain, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem or the destruction of European Jewry in the Holocaust, as Jews we are unfortunately all too familiar with what it is like to be a refugee. As current and future leaders of the Jewish community, we want to offer our prayers and our Torah learning to serve as a source of strength for those at deepest risk, for the refugees who seek shelter in the land of the free, the United States. In the words of one of the organizers, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical Student Jeremy Borovitz, “I will fast and pray in memory of the passengers of the MS St Louis, who were denied entry to the United States as refugees, many of whom were later killed at the hands of the Nazis.”

The event will begin at 8:00am with prayer in the Chapel at JFK Terminal 4, which is on the 4th floor of Terminal 4, all the way to the left (there will be signs, or you can ask security). From 8:45 – 12:30, there will be Torah learning in the chapel. Rabbis and rabbinical students will be available to facilitate Torah learning, participants are also invited to bring their own study materials. At 12:30pm, there will be a short ceremony which will take place just outside of terminal 4. Contact danielatwood1@gmail.com for details and locations.

The rally is being organized by Rabbinical students at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, with other Rabbinical students and community members participating. Uri L’Tzedek and the Brooklyn Beit Midrash are co-sponsors.