Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on December 28, 2021

In November, when Rabbi Ariana Capptauber offered to house a few of the hundreds of Afghan refugees expected to arrive in the Harrisburg region, she was compelled by a deeply personal reason.

Capptauber is the descendant of Holocaust survivors. Her grandmother and great-grandmother fled Nazi-occupied Poland in the 1930s, embarking on a journey of survival made possible by the help of total strangers.

Capptauber wanted to help the Afghan refugees. She thought of it as a way to repay the universe. To pay it forward.

They went through harrowing times, she said of her grandmother and late great-grandmother. My grandmother had two other siblings who were shot and my grandfather died. They escaped the ghetto and lived through the kindness of strangers.

Last month, when she learned of the impending arrival of Afghan refugees, Capptauber, rabbi at Beth El Temple in Harrisburg, joined her congregation in organizing truck loads of donations of household items, clothing and food. And she learned that housing for the families was one of the greatest needs of the International Service Center, the resettlement agency working with the refugees.

Capptauber had not long ago renovated her basement, turning it into an apartment with its own kitchen and entrance. She realized it would be a perfect temporary home for a refugee family. She contacted Truong Phuong, executive director of the resettlement agency, and by late November, Abdul Tamim Zeiaye, his wife Shahnaz Khetabi, and their four children were living in Capptaubers basement.

For the rabbi, the newly minted connection with refugees brought to a full circle the legacy of her own familys experience with displacement.

Her grandmother, who was a child of no more than 3 at the time, and her great-grandmother were sheltered by farmers and even spent time in camps deep in the forest, run by the Nazi resistance. After the war, they ended up in Italy in displaced persons camps.

Eventually, they were given the option to emigrate to Israel or the U.S. They chose the latter, disembarking in New York, where they were first taken in by a doctor who provided them with a room. They moved from one living situation to another before Capptaubers great-grandmother was able to find work as a nurse at a Jewish school, where she enrolled her daughter.

They really lived the experience of being refugees from Poland and arriving at displaced persons camps and then emigrating, Capptauber said. Ive always been really connected to that part of my family history. It felt meaningful to me to offer that space to refugees given that my family arrived in this country as refugees and were sheltered by others.

More than 100,000 people were airlifted out of Kabul in September after President Joe Biden withdrew all U.S. troops from Afghanistan. The Taliban seized control of the country, even as the first families of refugees began to arrive in cities across the United States. Hundreds are expected to be directed to central Pennsylvania. Already scores have arrived, most in large family groups.

Housing remains a priority.

Capptauber said she and her husband check in on their downstairs neighbors several times a week, and she tries to play with the children as well. But mostly, she said, Abdul Tamim Zeiaye and his wife remain reserved, and certainly, constrained by the language barrier.

Like thousands of other Afghan families, the Zeiayes fled their homeland with little more than the clothes on their backs.

Abdul Zeiaye, a member of the Afghan army who worked alongside U.S. troops in Kabul, remains fearful for the safety of his family back in Afghanistan. Because of that, he has been reluctant to speak much about his experience.

We feel very good. We are safe. We are here, he said a few weeks ago during an interview with PennLive.

Its good to be here. We are happy, his wife, Shahnaz Khetabi, said.

These days, their time is mostly occupied with resettlement business and health screening appointments, for which they rely on volunteers and translators working with the International Service Center.

Capptauber relies on Google translator to navigate the meager conversations with her lodgers. The fact that she is Jewish and they are Muslims is not lost on her or them.

As much as the headlines tell us that there is so much tension between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East, theres so much more going on at the human level. So much collaboration and work, said Capptauber, who has done several events with the Muslim community to promote dialogue and fellowship.

Theres a lot of things that often go overlooked because of the larger scale politics, she said.

She said that soon after meeting the Zeiaye family, she was up front with them, informing them of her faith.

I told them I was a rabbi of a Jewish community and they were like, my brother, my sister, over Google translator, Capptauber said. They were writing messages of togetherness and solidarity. I was up front and they were very loving.

TO HELP: For more information on volunteering and donations, contact the International Service Center at 717-236-9401; tnp@isc76.org

Read more:

Her family survived the Holocaust: Now a rabbi shelters Afghan refugees to pay forward the kindness of strang - PennLive

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