Tag Archives: JFCS/EB

One refugee’s journey to San Francisco

“Subhi Nahas remembers the exact day when he knew he’d have to leave Syria. It was the Spring of 2012. He was twenty four, on a bus, going to university take a final exam. It was the last exam he needed to graduate.”
— KALW Radio Crosscurrents

The powerful story of Subhi, a gay Syrian refugee now living in the San Francisco Bay Area, is much like the stories of the clients of the Guardian Group.  Subhi is not a client of the Guardian Group, but his harrowing ordeal is too familiar.  He also was helped by ORAM and by the Jewish Family and Community Services/East Bay, agencies that have supported several of the Guardian Group’s clients.

Read the full story and listen to the Crosscurrents report.

Subhi Nahas with Fred Hertz,

Subhi Nahas with Fred Hertz, who hosted him for his first two months in California Photo by ELI WIRTSCHAFTER

Read “Gay and Marked for Death”

The New York Times has published an op-ed story about Monday’s UN Security Council session on the persecution of LGBTI people in Africa, the Middle East, and many other areas around the world.

One of the men who is scheduled to testify in front of the United Nations, Subhi Nahas, is a San Francisco residence who is a client of the Guardian Group’s partner, the Jewish Family and Children Services of the East Bay.  The Guardian Group is not helping this 28-year-old Iraqi man, but we appreciate his courage in testifying.

Read more from the New York Times.