My mother’s Jewish family fled Germany after Nazi youth groups and paramilitary forces ransacked Jewish homes, hospitals, schools and synagogues in 1938 in “Kristallnacht” (Night of Broken Glass). After a brief stay in New York City, they were welcomed first by Quakers in Iowa and then set tled by the Disciples of Christ church in Eureka, Illinois. This letter from the minister of the church, “hearts filled with expectation and friendship,” invites the refugee family “to come live with us in our community:” The letter was received by my mother’s family at Scattergood Hostel, a closed Quaker school in remote Iowa reinvisioned by young Iowa Quakers as a sanctuary for refugees on their way to their American lives.  After a five month stay at Scattergood, the Quakers bade them farewell on Valentine’s Day, 1941 with this song: The Eureka community indeed welcomed the Rosenzweigs, so much so that my mother was bestowed the Daughters of the American Revolution “Good Citizenship” award two years after her arrival in town. We knew then, as many of us know now, that immigrants enrich our country. My mother moved to New Haven in 1952 and for the next 60 years contributed to our community as a social worker, activist, union leader, wife and mother. She will be celebrated at a Jewish Women in the Labor Movement event on March 1 at the New Haven Museum. Let us stand together, descendants of immigrants and recent arrivals, to support one another. All are welcome here. For more on Scattergood, see this 7-minute video Scattergood Hostel: A Quaker Response to the Holocaust The post Opinion: How We Used To Welcome Immigrants appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less