News Archive - The Charles Bronfman Prize

American lawyer fights for Syrian refugees

MSNBC | May 3, 2016 by MSNBC

Becca Heller from the International Refugee Assistance Project speaks at the 2016 Women in the World Conference about her work helping Syrian refugees.

Equal Opportunity for Those Needing Bone Marrow Transplants

Huffington Post | March 17, 2016 by Jay Feinberg

When I was diagnosed with leukemia in 1991, the doctor told me to go home and prepare my bucket list. While there was a cure for my disease — a bone marrow transplant — I would nonetheless die because I’d never find a matching donor, and the reason was because I was Jewish.

An Unpaid Debt to Afghan Interpreters

The New York Times | February 4, 2016 by The Editorial Board

Last fall, Congress made a change to the rules of a resettlement program for Afghan interpreters who risked their lives by working for the American government. To be eligible for an American visa, applicants would have to demonstrate that they had worked for the United States for at least two years, rather than one. There was no reason to think the new requirement would affect the roughly 10,300 people who already had pending applications.

Refugees, Stuck in Grinding U.S. Process, Wait and Hope

The New York Times | October 10, 2015 by Somini Sengupta and Anne Barnard

A hushed room of diplomats listened intently as a man who called himself Adnan described his escape from Mosul, Iraq, when the Islamic State laid siege to the city in 2014: As a gay man, he told them via videolink from Lebanon, he knew he would be killed, and that even members of his family would not be sorry.

Charles Bronfman Prize Recipient Helps Resettle Middle East Refugees

The Jerusalem Post | June 14, 2015 by Hayah Goldlist-Eichler

Rebecca Heller, director and co-founder of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project at the Urban Justice Center in New York has been named the recipient of the 2015 Charles Bronfman Prize.

A Study in U.N. Priorities

The Wall Street Journal | June 10, 2015 by The Wall Street Journal

A United Nations committee recently granted official observer status to the Palestinian Return Center and denied it to a group called Freedom Now. Welcome to the latest U.N. exercise in undermining human rights.

Saving a Life Is Easier Than You Think

Huffington Post | May 19, 2015 by Jay Feinberg

Twenty years ago this month, I received the incredible news that would save my life. An exhaustive four-year search for a compatible bone marrow donor had finally resulted in a match, and after a successful transplant, my battle with leukemia at last was over. It was that search for a match and the overwhelming outpouring of support I received that inspired me to establish the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation.