Councilor Josh Zakim and Local Organizers Host Rally in Support of HAIS National Day of Action for Refugees

By Beth Treffeisen

This past Sunday, over a hundred people came together to join City Councilor Josh Zakim and community allies across the region for a rally in support of HAIS National Day of Action for Refugees.

The rally was held despite the snow on February 12, at the New England Holocaust Memorial located in Boston’s Carmen Park across from Boston City Hall.

HAIS is the global Jewish non-profit that protects refugees whose mission is to protect and assist refugees of all faiths and ethnicities.

Faced with the greatest refugee crisis since the Holocaust, the rally was held to speak out against President Trump’s and his administration’s Executive Order on immigration that willfully turns America’s back on the world’s neediest.

The rally provided an opportunity for people of all backgrounds and faiths to come together peacefully to honor history and to protest the cruelty of a policy that threatens to cause significant global suffering.

Speakers included Boston City Councilor Josh Zakim, Rabbi Claudia Kreiman from Temple Beth Zion, Iman Faisal Khan from the Islamic Center of Boston in Wayland, Fred Manasse a Holocaust Survivor and Refugee Advocate, former Boston City Councilor Mike Ross, Nahma Nadich from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston and Robert Trestan from the Anti-Defamation League of New England.

“As we move forward from today I feel great.  I am warm, even out in this cold, by the people here, by the energy by us standing together. But that is not enough,” said Josh Zakim.

He continued, “But we need to continue working together to share our American values of openness and freedom. These values are under assault like never before and the only way we can stop this is to stand here like this again and again and again until we are successful.”

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