Refugee Shabbat with Rabbi Jill Avrin

Join us on Friday, March 27 for Refugee Shabbat where we will honor refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced people. At this time when immigrants are being targeted, we will learn from other communities who have stood up with their neighbors in order to educate and mobilize our local community. We will welcome Rabbi Jill Avrin, Director of Campus Affairs at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Rabbi Avrin’s work addressing the ICE surge in Minnesota has included organizing and attending interfaith gatherings and vigils, protesting, advocacy, education, and mutual aid efforts. She helped host the 700 clergy who came to Minnesota in January with MARCH, including national leaders from the Reform movement. She has been protesting at the Whipple building where detainees are still being held, as well as at her local suburban protests. Rabbi Avrin has always centered social justice as a primary part of her portfolio as a rabbi. She was co-chair of the Minnesota Rabbinical Association in 2020, when George Floyd was murdered, and helped organize the Minnesota Jewish community’s united response at that time. In recent months, she has taken a lead role in addressing Operation Metro Surge through her work at JCRC and YourJewish.

Our Oneg, starting at 6pm, will feature food from Emma’s Torch, a local organization that equips refugees with the skills and confidence to create meaningful careers in the food industry through their culinary training programs.  John Odenwelder, Executive Director of Washington English Center, our tzedakah recipient for the month of March, also plans to attend the Oneg.

***Poster supplies will be available at the Oneg for those who want to make a poster for the No Kings Rally on Saturday, March 28.  Learn more here