STATEMENT
October 29, 2018
World Relief Statement on Terrorist Attack
On Saturday, a gunman took the lives of eleven people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The alleged perpetrator was reportedly motivated by anti-Semitic views as well as by his hostility toward HIAS, an organization rooted in the Jewish faith, which for more than a century has assisted refugees and other immigrants.
Because World Relief, like HIAS, is among the nine national organizations that partner with the U.S. State Department to resettle refugees, this horrific attack hits particularly close to home. Our friends and partners at HIAS, as well as the entire American Jewish community, are in our prayers as they grieve this horrific loss of life. We join them in re-committing ourselves to the values of our respective faiths that compel us to welcome refugees and immigrants and to work against hatred, anti-Semitism and xenophobia.