Bound and released by a blessing

In Judaism, prayer seeks to effect change by stimulating us to be agents of the same. Accordingly, while our Year 12 students may engage in the study of specific prayers and their meanings, they also have the opportunity and are encouraged to see prayer as or make prayer a personal call to social activism.

Thus, the daily morning blessing of releasing the bound (matir asurim) has become a call for and is being translated into action by several of our students who are learning about refugees in their prayer elective. Below is a report and reflection of one of the students attending a recent session, who himself visited Villawood and was moved by the need “to stand up for Asylum Seekers”. This refugee was ‘released’ from Villawood, due, in no small part, to the facilitator of this elective, who writes the introduction to Hadi below.

Another student, in this elective, understands that being released from Villawood is only the beginning of a new life. She collected necessary provisions and products for a newborn and visited a refugee released from Villawood, who recently gave birth to her first child, to provide personal support and to present her with this generous assistance. Having first met this woman at the Detention Centre she was moved to help effect the blessing of releasing one who is bound.

Actions such as this, or having a recently released refugee at one’s Shabbat dinner, as related below, puts us on a path of becoming “masters of prayer”.
Rabbi Daniel Siegel

Shira Sebban

Hadi

I first met Hadi in early 2016 when I began visiting asylum seekers at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre as a member of Supporting Asylum Seekers Sydney (SASS), an organisation co-established five years ago by former Emanuel parent and P&F President Anna Buch. I was immediately struck by this polite, softly-spoken man, who was keen to converse on a broad range of subjects from politics to religion. I have been enriched by our friendship and truly admire his courage and resilience and his constant efforts to improve and learn new skills. Since he was released from Villawood earlier this year, he has joined my family for Shabbat dinner several times and was happy to visit Emanuel School to speak with students about his experiences. As he told our students: “You have wonderful opportunities in front of you, but I’m now 42 years old and I still need to work out what to do with my life.”   

Mrs Shira Sebban

Zev Shteinman – Year 11

Hadi visits Emanuel

A man called Hadi recently came to Emanuel to speak with our tefillah group about his life as an Arab Iranian refugee. He was recently released from Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Western Sydney. His incredible life story, like that of many other refugees, involves oppression, violence and trauma.

He was born in the south west of Iran, near the Iraqi border. His proximity to the border became a serious problem during the Iran Iraq war (1980 – 1988). Hadi’s town was under serious threat of Iraqi rockets and most people in the town fled as soon as possible. Many hours in bomb shelters and hearing rockets exploding was very traumatic for him to endure as a five-year-old.

Hadi, unlike most Iranians, is not Persian; he is an Ahwazi Arab. Being a part of a minority ethnicity in Iran was and still is a dangerous situation for non-Persian Iranians. The Iranian population consists of 63% Persians, 16% Azeris, 10% Kurds, and only 2% Arabs. The Iranian government, as well as many Persians, look down upon Arabs, and Hadi, being an Arab in Iran, experienced severe persecution by the authorities.

Hadi joined a protest about the suffocating oppression against the Arabs – it was a peaceful protest. However, due to the hard-line authorities, Hadi was sent to jail. He was isolated in an extremely small cell where he was interrogated and tortured. I could tell that it was hard for Hadi to talk about his time in this cruel jail.

After months of torture and isolation, Hadi escaped the prison. Living as a fugitive, he hid from the authorities with his family. The authorities became suspicious of Hadi’s family and harassed them to turn him in so it became clear that the only option was for Hadi to leave the country. His family helped him obtain false papers so he could get a flight out of Iran. He flew from Iran to Malaysia, and from there, travelled by boat to Indonesia.

In Indonesia, Hadi paid around $15,000 (the source of which is another story) to earn a spot on a boat heading for Australia. The boat was in extremely bad condition and very overcrowded. During the very long and agonising journey from Indonesia to Australia, the boat was intercepted by the Australian Navy, leading to Hadi being sent to multiple detention centres, including Christmas Island, Darwin Detention Centre and Villawood. Hadi endured and suffered many years in these dreadful detention centres, largely just for seeking asylum.

Unfortunately, in Australia, asylum seekers are punished and imprisoned as if they had committed something like murder, when in fact all they’ve done is seek safety in our country. It’s a great shame that a vast number of people around the world have to suffer from so much oppression and persecution that they need to flee their country. However, it’s an ever greater shame that in Australia, we add to their trauma by sending them to these unfair and harsh detention centres.

Hadi’s story really reiterated the hardship and pain asylum seekers have to deal with, both in their home countries and in Australia’s immigration detention centres. Thank you to Mrs  Sebban who is good friends with Hadi and invited him to come speak with us. I will not forget Hadi’s story and I’ll let it be a reminder of the necessity to stand up for asylum seekers.

Zev Shteinman