June 20th is World Refugee Day, a day the United Nations has designated for raising awareness of forcibly displaced people worldwide. The situation of refugees has made it into the headlines in the past year with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Syrians and others fleeing war and other crises on European shores. There are more displaced persons in the world today than at any time since World War II.
This program aims to raise awareness of the situation of refugees then and now. Among the speakers will be someone who fled Europe in the 1930s to escape from the Nazis and sought refuge in the United States, and a Syrian refugee who was forced to leave Syria in 2007. A representative of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), an organization that works around the world to protect refugees, will talk about the current situation in Europe and elsewhere and how history can guide us in our response. The discussion will be moderated by Mark McGuigan, US Program Director of Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP). Greetings by representatives of the Goethe-Institut and the German Embassy.
This panel discussion is the closing event for ARSP's 3rd annual fundraiser bike ride “Ride4Action” from Philadelphia to Washington, DC, which raises money and awareness for work with refugees. A portion of the proceeds will go to HIAS. The event is free of charge; attendees will be invited to make a contribution.
Panelists:
Ahed al-Hendi is a Syrian-born researcher and political activist who has been living in Washington, DC since 2009. He spent 40 days in prison in Syria for co-founding a pro-democracy group. He was arrested at an internet café in Damascus in December 2006. Al-Hendi fled Syria in 2007 and moved permanently to the U.S in 2009. Al-Hendi has a bachelor's degree in International Relations. When Syrian protests began in 2011, Al-Hendi became one of the most outspoken activists in the US, speaking in support of the Syrian democracy movement. He has briefed many members of Congress, and he has met with President George W. Bush, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other high-level officials. He is in daily communication with a wide network of activists and researchers in Syria. His research on the Middle East has been published in
Foreign Policy,
Foreign Affairs,
Wall Street Journal,
Daily Beast,
Huffington Post, Reuters, CNN,
Al-Hayat, and
Al-Mustaqbal. He has been interviewed by many international and Arabic TV networks such as CNN, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, Al-Hura, France 24, and Russia Today. He has lectured at the US Institute for Peace, New American Foundation, Hudson Institute, and the Milton Wolf Seminar in Austria. He often travels to the Middle East to meet with political leaders.
Margit Meissner is a volunteer guide and frequent speaker at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. She was born in 1922 in Innsbruck, Austria, and grew up in Prague until 1938. Following the rise of the Nazis to power, Meissner was sent to France, which was deemed safer. In 1940, after France surrendered to Germany, Meissner and her mother managed to flee Europe for the United States. Her memoir,
Margit’s Story, was published in 2003.
Melanie Nezer is Vice President of Policy and Advocacy for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). She is also currently chair of Refugee Council USA, the coalition of U.S. non-governmental organizations focused on refugee protection. Before joining HIAS, Nezer was the immigration policy director for the organization now known as US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), where she was co-editor of
Refugee Reports and a writer for the annual World Refugee Survey. Prior to her work in Washington, she was in private practice in Miami, Florida, where she specialized in immigration law and criminal defense. Nezer obtained her law degree from Boston College Law School and her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Organized by Action Reconciliation Service for Peace in conjunction with the exhibition
Escape Routes.
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