美国国家公共电台 NPR At A New Jersey Mosque, People Of Different Faiths Welcome Syrians（在线收听）

At A New Jersey Mosque, People Of Different Faiths Welcome Syrians

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

We're going to hear now about Americans offering to help resettle Syrian refugees. The U.S. has increased the number of refugees coming here. Some, especially in this charged political season, say that newcomers aren't getting security screening, enough that they - aren't getting enough security screening. That wasn't a concern to a diverse group that met recently to try to lend a hand. NPR's Deborah Amos reports.

DEBORAH AMOS, BYLINE: Here's the scene at a mosque in Elizabeth, N.J. on a recent Saturday afternoon. It's a party for more than 50 Syrian refugees - recent arrivals, all mothers and children. The volunteers to come to support them are an unlikely alliance that includes Girl Scouts, Jews from a nearby synagogue and Pakistani-born immigrants.

NARGIS CHOUDHRY: OK, Nargis Choudhry.

AMOS: Nargis.

CHOUDHRY: Nargis, yes. I'm a math teacher here.

SAMAN KHAN: Saman, Saman Khan.

AMOS: Choudhry and Khan, born in Pakistan, say they're proud to be Americans. Their kids were born here. They organize gifts for the Syrian children selected by American kids - big watches popular with girls, bows and arrows for the boys from a popular movie.

KHAN: Which one was it? Like, "Hunger Games"? So after that, bows and arrows is so in as a toy.

AMOS: But do you think they'll be surprised by some of these gifts?

KHAN: They will be surprised because, you know, a lot of things, they will be new for them. You know what? They're going to live in America. They need to know what American kids like.

AMOS: How to live in America - that's the biggest challenge after a move from crowded refugee camps and a brutal war. More are arriving every day as the Obama administration tries to meet a goal of bringing 10,000 Syrians here by the end of the fiscal year in October. The kids will learn English in school. The mothers need more help, so some 16-year-old Girl Scouts are stepping in.

LEILA ESPOSITO: I'm Leila Esposito. And for my Girl Scout project, I'm going to be doing - it'll be for the mothers who take their ESL here.

AMOS: That's English class.

L. ESPOSITO: Right.

AMOS: Her friend, Shaden Awad, organized a tutoring program in math for the kids.

SHADEN AWAD: They missed, like, four years of schooling. So we're just, you know, helping them catch up and stuff and, like, welcoming them to America.

AMOS: A wider welcome that's been strained, she believes, because Syrian refugees are Muslim. So Awad launched a cultural awareness program in her high school.

AWAD: You know, Islamophobia on the rise and stuff like that, so - 'cause I live in a purely Caucasian, suburban town.

AMOS: Are you the only Muslim in your high school?

AWAD: One of, like, two. The other one's my brother, so (laughter) yeah.

AMOS: Their scout leader, Wafa Chabbani Esposito, says she's here because she knows what it means to leave everything behind. Born in Lebanon, she fled her country's civil war, eventually became an American citizen.

WAFA CHABBANI ESPOSITO: They have been through hell. I have been through war, and I was a refugee, and I know what it means.

AMOS: And she knows how to make the Jewish group feel welcome in their first ever visit to a mosque.

W. ESPOSITO: Salaam is like shalom. Salaam. Salaam like shalom.

AMOS: Alissa Berger is here with her daughter and husband. Jenny Tananbaum came, too, all from the same nearby synagogue. They've volunteered to mentor one Syrian family for a year. Berger and then Tananbaum explained why they are here at a time when New Jersey's governor has raised security concerns and halted any cooperation with the federal resettlement program.

ALISSA BERGER: Which is very - oh, we're not happy about that at all. I think that - listen, as us being Jews, this was us how many years ago. You know, as Jews, our great-grandparents came to this country to make a new life for themselves. And that's what these people are going through.

JENNY TANANBAUM: My grandmother actually walked out of Poland across Europe to Amsterdam because she had to flee persecution, took a boat illegally to get to Canada and came into - illegally into the United States. So I get it. You know, I heard her story. So this is no different than these people. So how can we not help?

AMOS: Moved by the biggest refugee crisis in a generation, they plan to give practical help - advice on banking and budget, housing and utilities that work. It's a large donation of time more valuable than any handouts. Wafa Esposito makes the introductions.

W. ESPOSITO: Um Wael Haloud (foreign language spoken) Madame Jenny.

AMOS: Um Wael Haloud, a Syrian mother of three, quietly takes in the Americans who are offering a lifeline.

TANANBAUM: Tell her from us that we are all people. We are all humans. We just want to help and be friends.

BERGER: Yeah, yeah.

AMOS: Deborah Amos, NPR News, Elizabeth, N.J.