NEW YORK (JTA) – The weathered transit halls of New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal have been turned into a makeshift immigration office over the last couple weeks, ever since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott began sending asylum seekers and other migrants to New York City.
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And when they arrive, Masbia, the kosher food pantry, is among the organizations there to greet them, providing shoes and smiles for hundreds of weary migrants.
“It is hard to keep up the pace,” Masbia Executive Director Alexander Rapaport told the New York Jewish Week, after his organization had been there for days, handing out hundreds of pairs of shoes they picked up from Walmart and Target. “It’s not a little sandwich we’re giving people.”
On Thursday, another busload of migrants arrived from Texas at 11:00 a.m. after a 72-hour journey. Among them was Anthony, a 22-year-old from Venezuela. He told the New York Jewish Week that his route north took him through the Panamanian jungle, where he injured his feet, leaving him “crying and depressed.”
He added, “A gentlemen of 60 years old, the people took and raped his granddaughter, he tried to defend her, and he also got raped.”
Anthony said he came to New York City alone, leaving his family behind in Venezuela.
“I don’t know anyone here,” Anthony said. “My family is very poor. I’ve been lucky to even get to New York. My goal is to get a good job and help my family back in my country.”
He added that he was apprehended after crossing into Texas, and border patrol officials asked if he wanted to go to New York.
“They put me on a bus, and here we are,” Anthony said.
Five buses of asylum seekers were sent from Texas to New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022. (Jacob Henry)
The buses are part of what the Republican Abbott says is a plan to pressure the Biden administration on border security; critics, including NYC Mayor Eric Adams, say it is an inhumane political stunt. In a New York Post op-ed on Tuesday, Abbot called Adams a hypocrite for calling New York a sanctuary city and then complaining about the new arrivals.
On Twitter, Adams’ press secretary Fabian Levy wrote that the mayor is “welcoming asylum seekers with open arms.”
Abbot said he began sending immigrants from Texas on Aug. 5, although New York City officials say it began earlier than that. Thousands of asylum seekers — including individuals and families, young children, people in wheelchairs, sick people — have arrived since then, often having worn the same clothes for months and confused as to how they ended up in New York. Five buses arrived on Wednesday, and another five on Thursday.
Masbia set up a table at the bus terminal with a three-foot-tall Statue of Liberty greeting the immigrants.
Ruben Diaz, a Masbia manager, said that the organization visited seven Walmarts, buying “six to seven carts of shoes” at each store.
A Masbia associate in New York City fits a new pair of shoes for a child who came off of a bus from Texas, Aug. 25, 2022. (Jacob Henry)
“They thought it was a joke, some TikTok prank,” Diaz said.
Hearing Anthony’s story, Rapaport said he was reminded of his own family’s immigration story: His grandmother’s brother was killed in the Holocaust, leading his family to seek a better life in America.
“People are going through hell coming here,” Rapaport said. “It shows their perseverance. If someone is so determined, this speaks about their character. How bad must it be over there?”
Rapoport also saw reminders of the Holocaust in the wristbands the migrants wear on their arms, which appear to be a digital tracking service used by the Border Patrol in Texas.
Miguel Castro, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, said at a press conference on Thursday that the barcodes are being used to intimidate people to stay on the buses.
“We’ve heard from asylum seekers that feel they are being trapped because of these bracelets,” Castro said. “These bracelets, we don’t know much about why they are being used or what is their intention, but we know that it has scared asylum seekers.”
Asylum seekers coming to New York from Texas were seen wearing digital wristbands on their arms. (Courtesy)
Rapaport said that the wristbands reminded him of the tattoos the Nazis used to tag concentration camp prisoners.
“When you see numbers on arms, where its digital, a barcode, it’s not the Holocaust, but there are traces of it,” Rapaport said. “It doesn’t need to be as bad as that to run away from it. It’s not comparable, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a lesson to not even get close.”
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Shaina Coronel, the director of communication for the Office of Immigrant Affairs, told the New York Jewish Week that the city is providing food, water and legal and medical assistance.
“We’ve had people come off the buses needing immediate medical attention,” Coronel said. “A lot of them are coming COVID-positive. They’re traveling on a three-day journey, with very little food, with very little water. These are the conditions we’ve been seeing on the ground.”
She said that Abbott refuses to communicate with New York City officials and expects this to go on until November, when Abbott is up for reelection in Texas.
“He’s playing with people’s lives as if they were political pawns,” Coronel said.
Coronel said that New York is a right-to-shelter city, which means that by law, “New York is mandated to provide shelter for those in need.”
“We’ve adjusted,” Coronel said. “We’ve opened 13 additional spaces and hotels to accommodate the asylum seekers and their families that are coming here. And we’re continuing to adjust.”
She added that there have been “positive conversations with Washington, D.C.” about federal aid and they are “hoping to get an update soon.”
Coronel also brought up New York’s history, where millions of immigrants have arrived over the years, including the Irish, Italians, Jews, West Indians and Dominicans.
“The spirit of New Yorkers is all about coming together and saying we got your back as soon as you get here,” Coronel said.
An asylum seeker changes into new shoes given to him by Masbia, revealing damaged skin from his three-month journey. (Jacob Henry)
From a Jewish perspective, Rapaport said giving shoes to asylum seekers is inspired by a verse in Torah saying how God protected the Israelites’ feet during their 40-year sojourn in the desert.
“These asylum seekers, their feet were destroyed,” Rapaport said. “There’s still going to be a lot of challenges. They’re navigating a new place. It’s not easy, but at least we put out these welcoming signs.”
He added another lesson from the Torah: “remember the stranger.”
Since it’s so “charitable”, let Masbia also pay our increase in property taxes used for influx of illegals into public schools, and reimburse us for the street crime damages to our property, such as burglaries and drank driving without insurance, that are committed by the illegals. Not even mentioning bodily injuries or worse. Thank you Masbia?
Absurd action from this Masbia group. The goyim can help their own. Plus, this is only “feeding” a gigantic problem in the US, which is the open border, besides the other unconstitutional mandates from this government of the sitra achra.
Mr. Rapaport is spewing nonsense. I had parents that both survived Auschwitz and to compare the gentle gift collecting experience with the horrors of the Shoah is nonsense. Obviously he gets Government funds but probably will not get my funds.
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
I will never give them another penny.
What a rosho this rappaport is, comparing wristbands for criminals to what the nazis did. sent him away from our community!
Who appointed this Rapaport guy to represent the community? He was involved in a praiseworthy effort to help feed needy brethren in a dignified manner in the past, which garnered much attention and support, but then he started fancying himself some big macher and community representative, feeding the world, bringing strangers into the neighborhood, and welcoming illegals. He is tied to the liberal democrats by the hip, he even appeared in one of Bill de Blasio’s videos a while back.
Let it be stated loud and clear – Alexander Rapaport does not represent Orthodoxy. He is like a non-Orthodox representative of Federation, just that he wears a caftan and a shtreimel instead of more modern clothing. But don’t be fooled by the exterior. He and his father, PR man Yosef Rapaport, are left wing Democrat liberals.
Yeh, good point. The Goyim also have to make Shabbos. The Goyim come first. B”H there are no aniyim in Boro Park or Flatbush. Amazing.
He and David greenfield make millions from government you know met council on jewish poverty has a new hallal department? Only fools give masbia
Rappaport’s just Another scoundrel invoking the holocaust, crying crocodile tears. Shame in him. Let’s see this big shot that gets millions of taxpayer dollars, bring these freeloaders to Boro Park and house and feed them there!
The same goes for Hershel Weider, how many of these “migrants “ that are sponging off taxpayer dollars is he volunteering to house in Monsey , New Square, Forshay etc.
Rockland county community college has a huge campus. Let’s see how many he’s busing to his backyard .
The fraud Alex Rapaport puts big ads in liberal newspapers like the Jewish Weak, and gets donations from liberals in places like the Upper West Side. Meanwhile, his father Joe is boasting how vaccinated he is. Hey Alex and Joe, did you check to make sure the illegals you are welcoming are quadruple vaccinated?
Bring the illegals to Kosov-Vizhnitz, every Hasidic family should take some in, no?
and Shomrim & Shmira are adding new volunteers.
Self hating liberal jew.
Disgusting rappoport
This is a PR stunt from Masbia.
Are these people and their descendants going to be put in refugee camps and given refugee status for generations? Where is the UN to pour billions into aiding them?
If they are illegal immigrants, is there a reason why they are welcomed? So that we Americans should work hard and pay taxes to support NYS (including Rappaport & Wieder) stupidity….
Let Alex and Joe Rapaport give the illegals bread from their family bakery in B.P., Brauner’s. But don’t take money given for other reasons to fund their new PR project to curry favor with leftists and liberal politicians.
Some Jews never learn…He thinks he’s doing a favor to illegals meanwhile he’s bringing all of his Jewish brother s down…more crime, less money for essential services hospitals (and then there’s campaigning for community hospitals to be saved) anti-Semitism for supporting illegal behavior, etc., etc. But money blinds common sense and caring for the well being of the Jewish community. At least he should change “Masbia'” name nad not being in the “Jewish angle” which is false to compare on so many levels.
Ah Masbia Masbia,we gottta give these guys credit. They are the epidemy of publicity hounds. And off course they are constantly making A “Kiddish Hashem”.
It seems like in the merit of Masbia Moshicah will come.
Daily they are feeding thousands of non-Jews in the heart of Boro Park.
Daily you can see on 54th Street and New Utrecht the home of Masbia long long lines of non-Jews from all walks of life from riff raff homeless or just plain threatening looking people but Masbia does not discriminate.
Woo wee are we impressed by Masbias huge “Kiddish Hashem”.
Mr. Rappaport, If you have thousands of dollars to give to ILLEGALlaw breaking immigrants, then start helping the thousands of Jewish senior citizens who live below the poverty line. To equate holocust survivors with these ILLEGALS is disgusting. I think it is time for you to resign or hopefully be forcefully removed from Masbia. You are not fit to represent the frum community. Until you are removed and a truly Torah Yid takes your place I urge all to withhold financial support to MASBIA.
remember
“there aint no for profit business as a non for profit
he will milk this for all he can get out of the govt
If a time of desperate need, G-d forbid, ever comes again to our People, may neither we nor our descendants face the kind of responses expressed in some of these comments.
Is the food Yoshon?
If not I’m not donating
I’m so angry about this. But to be fair, what choice does he have?? Every corrupt lowlife local, state, Federal, Democrat politician, WHICH ARE THE ONES THAT RUN THE SHOW IN NEW YORK STATE (no thanks to the ones that put them there, the voters) no doubt are forcing him to do this. They’re saying, “we get you loads of government money, this is what we expect. Get it done (or you and your organization are done)”
Rappaport now expanded his charitable giving from feeding 100s of Chinese families to also feeding Spanish families.
Amazing how angry people get over this terrible sin of feeding hungry people
It is important to help people.
Thanks Mr. Rappaport. Politics aside, we yidden have wandered in dire straits for most of our history, and part of being a yid is being a Rachman. Shlach Lachmeicha El Hamayim. Help a human being in need, without being distracted by the general politics.
Ki geirim hayesoh b’eretz mitzrayim!
Politics aside fellow humans are in desperate need and bh am yisrael is heeding the call
I give to Masbia every month. I have always been proud to support them and this makes me more so.
Both Texas and Mesiba is correct. A country can’t tax it’s citizens. But if you privately want to help immigrants why not. That being said, the Mitzva to help immigrants only apply to Jews or a ger toshiav. It doesn’t apply to Stam goyim. However there is a darkai Shalom . And ofc, if they can get some money from like Soros to help Jews, why not