January 23, 2024 • 24 mins
Mark Hetfield
Mark Hetfield first joined HIAS in 1989 as a caseworker in Rome, Italy. He has worked for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a large law firm as an immigration attorney, and has held multiple roles at HIAS over the years. Since being named HIAS’ President and CEO in 2013, Mark has led the transformation of HIAS from helping refugees because they were Jewish to helping refugees because we are Jewish.
Mark is proud of HIAS’ role in assisting and resettling refugees of all faiths and ethnicities and as a major implementing partner of the United Nations Refugee Agency and the U.S. Department of State. He is a frequent commentator and writer on refugee issues on television, radio, newspapers, and other media outlets. Mark holds both a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University.
Mark Hetfield first joined HIAS in 1989 as a caseworker in Rome, Italy. He has worked for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a large law firm as an immigration attorney, and has held multiple roles at HIAS over the years. Since being named HIAS’ President and CEO in 2013, Mark has led the transformation of HIAS from helping refugees because they were Jewish to helping refugees because we are Jewish.
Mark is proud of HIAS’ role in assisting and resettling refugees of all faiths and ethnicities and as a major implementing partner of the United Nations Refugee Agency and the U.S. Department of State. He is a frequent commentator and writer on refugee issues on television, radio, newspapers, and other media outlets. Mark holds both a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Wow, M and T Bank presentsCEOs. You should know power by Iheartadia.
Let's me Mark Hetfield. He isthe president and CEO for the Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society also known as HIGAS. Before we talk more about marks don
profit that's been around for more thanone hundred years. I first asked him
to talk a little bit about himself, where he's from and his origin story.
(00:22):
I'm from New Jersey, born andraised in Plainfield and watched on New
Jersey and outside of New York.And I came to Washington, d C.
To go to Georgetown as an undergraduateand became a triple Hoya. I
graduated there from the School of FriendService, and then I got my law
degree from Georgetown, and I'm nowgetting my executive MBA. All right,
(00:44):
so you're going to love this.I've got some affiliations to Georgetown. I've
got a lot of friends that havegone there grade school. When I was
growing up in Falls Church, obviouslyI was a big Hoya fan. And
circle back to two thousand and eight. I moved here to run Red Zebra
Operations, which is ESPN nine eightyand guess who for me on a midday
show? Coach John Thompson. Wow. And when I first met him,
(01:04):
I was so intimidated because remember hewas a whole king of a man,
rip coach. But as I gotto know him, we became good friends.
Over the two years I worked withhim, and he couldn't have been
a nicer man. And I justfelt so fortunate after being a fan all
those years and watching all those greatHoya teams and final fours and Big East
basketball that I know that you're abig part of. When you went there,
(01:26):
it was such a treat to workwith him. He was such a
gentle giant and a really cool man. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Yeah,
that was great. Okay, well, listen, we're going to talk
a lot about HYAS and I knowthat you have a very long history on
and off for thirty five years,folks, which is absolutely incredible. I
think that's longer than some of ourlisteners right now. Martha, you've been
involved with which is an incredible runon and out, but I know permanently
(01:48):
since two thousand and six. Butif you could do me a favor and
our listeners too, can you tellus a little bit about how highest started
in the whole history of it,because I'm really intrigued by that sure,
and we were actually over one hundredand twenty years old. We were started
in nineteen oh three, on Februaryfourteenth, nineteen oh three, in New
York City on the Lower East Side, in response to the mass exodus of
(02:14):
Jews who were fleeing from Russia andEastern Europe, fleeing the anti Semitic for
Gromes, the violence and the povertythat forced them to leave their homes and
come to a new land. Andso we were started to make sure that
people who fled were able to getoff of Ellis Island, like get past
the immigration authorities and come into theUnited States. And then once they did
(02:37):
that, we made sure that theygot shelter and then train tickets on to
destinations outside of New York. Sothat was Hyas's focus when we were first
first founded, but that evolved becausein nineteen twenty one, the United States
Congress was sick and tired of beingdragged into all of Europe's problems, and
(02:58):
very similar to what we're seeing today, there was a they were mixing up
the people who were fleeing the problemsof Europe with the actual problems of Europe,
and the United States became very closedto immigration and basically slammed the door
shut on immigrants in nineteen twenty one, and then locked that door in nineteen
twenty four with a series of lawsthat imposed very strict quotas and also required
(03:24):
people to get advanced permission to cometo the United States to basically get a
visa before they could get on aship and come here. So we could
no longer just sit on Alis Islandand wait for people to come to us
because they weren't able to leave.They weren't able to get permission to go
on those ships. So we wentto Europe and went to other countries around
the world to try to find themplaces that would take them because the United
(03:46):
States had closed its doors. Youknow, Mark, as you tell that
story reminds me of that old adageabout how much things change but they stayed
the same. It's really true here. So that's fascinating. We're going to
talk more about the history and allyour involvement over the last thirty five years.
By listen, you came out withsome great papers. I mean,
were you with to Georgetown all theamazing things that you did in school.
I'm always curious in this series aboutwhat attracts people to a gig And I
(04:11):
know you always haven't been president andCEO, and we'll talk about your ascension
with the organization, but what firstattracted you to the organization about wanting to
join. There's a few things.When I was in college, I was
tutoring. I tutored Central American refugeesand that really made me interested in immigration
and refugees in America's role as acountry of immigrants. And at the same
(04:33):
time, there was the Soviet Jeurymovement going on. As you know,
there was a very strong human rightsmovement around the world, but especially here
in the United States to compel theSoviet Union to let Jewish people emigrate,
particularly to Israel, but also tothe United States and other places where they
had families. So the Soviet JeuryMarch became a big thing while I was
(04:56):
in college on the mall, andthat fired me to look into working for
highest And indeed I answered anat inthe New York Times where they needed a
Russian speaking caseworker to go to Italyto help Jews who were seeing the Soviet
Union get to the United States Italy, and back in those days was a
way station for that and I wasa Soviet studies major at Georgetown. I
(05:18):
learned Rusham while I was there,so I was selected for that job and
started working for Highest in nineteen eightynine. That is very job specific of
what you were doing and fitting intothat role, which is absolutely amazing.
So let's do this before we findout all the things that you do and
introduce Highest to our audience and maybehasn't heard of all the amazing things that
(05:39):
this organization has been over the lastehundred years, especially for you over the
last thirty five years, on andoff. When it comes to the mission
statement, what is that? Well, there's the mission statement, but then
there's also the way we describe ourselves. And I'd say that really goes to
the heart of it, which isthat we used to help refugees because as
(06:00):
they were Jewish. Today we helprefugees because we are Jewish. When I
started working at Highest in nineteen eightynine, we were a Jewish organization that
helped Jewish refugees and back then theneeds we were able to engage ourselves more
than full time because the needs ofJewish refugees were so tremendous. But since
that time, with the collapse ofthe Soviet Union, the disintegration of the
(06:25):
Iron Curtain, and a global refugeecrisis, we've pivoted to being an agency
that's informed by our history, that'smotivated by Jewish values and Jewish teachings,
but that helps every refugee that needsassistance, no matter what their religion is,
no matter what their ethnicity or nationalityor color is. And so we've
(06:46):
become a humanitarian organization in that sense, but when guided by Jewish values,
and in that transformation, we've becomevery diverse, not just in terms of
the people that were helping, butthe people that help them. So our
staff is very diverse and again representsa multitude of faiths and ethnicities and nationalities.
And Mark, I'm guessing that onehundred years nobody would be able to
(07:11):
guess where the ascension has gone inthe growth of the nonprofit. But just
in the last thirty five years,your footprint is frigging worldwide. And even
I'm sure as you've been over thelast thirty five years, it's even probably
astonished you and your team how incrediblethat is. Now. Yeah, absolutely,
we are now in twenty five countriesaround the world. And it's interesting
(07:33):
too, it's not just our geographicfootprint that has changed and the people that
we've we helped it's changed. It'salso the nature of the work because since
nineteen forty eight, frankly, whenwe were helping Jewish refugees, Jews did
have a choice about where they go. They had an option of going to
Israel, or they could choose togo join family or communities in other countries
(07:58):
around the world. And highest wasgenerally the option that they the organization that
they worked with if they wanted togo to the United States to join family
or community here, or Canada orNew Zealand or Australia. But then once
we started working with other populations,once we started working with refugees who were
fleeing let's say Sudan or Somalia orBurma, they didn't have options of places
(08:24):
to go right They didn't have ahomeland that they could go to. They
were essentially stateless with no place togo, and we had to find them
a place. And if we couldn'tfind them a place, and in most
cases you can't because it's so difficultto find countries that are willing to accept
refugees we had to make them safewhere they are. We had to make
them safe in the first countries towhich they've fled. So for that reason,
(08:46):
highest largely focus is now on makingsure people get legal documents so they're
not returned to danger, that theyget the mental health and psycho social services
they need so that they're in abetter position, in a better state of
mind to adjust to their new lifein a new land. And then we
do our best to get them employed, to get themselves sufficient so they can
(09:09):
support themselves in whatever country they havefled to. And only when we can't
do that is resettlement. Looked atresettlement to a third country like the United
States, like Australia, Canada reallyconsidered as an option mark if we could
do this. Before we get intowhat you do, and I know it's
extensive, and there's two thousand peoplethat you're in charge of, and it
(09:30):
really is incredible that that many peoplework in your organization and you're charge to
that with your leadership and all thethings that you have to do as the
leader, But could you do mefever, even though you touched on it
a little bit on a thirty thousandfoot view, if somebody's new and hearing
about higas for the first time,what would you tell them that you exactly
do we help refugees to the extentthat they are not refugees anymore. Like
in other words, our goal isthat when we encounter a refugee anywhere in
(09:54):
the world, we want that personto no longer be a refugee. We
want that person to be at home, to feel at home wherever they are.
Now, with your role as CEOand president, everybody when they run
a company has a certain role ofleadership and dictating to their managers and their
vision and so forth. But sinceI'm new to what you do and so
(10:15):
our listeners, I am super curious. With two thousand people, that just
as overwhelming as it is. Butwith that said, in your role as
president's CEO, what do you do? That's a good question. No,
two days are the same in thisjob. Every day is different, and
it's my job to take credit foreverybody else's great work. Right, So
(10:35):
that's basically what I did. Makesure that the entire machine works well,
that we're able to raise the revenuethat we need to do our work,
that we're able to then do thework to fulfill our mission. Of making
sure that refugees have a place togo and feel at home so that they're
no longer refugees. So it's everythingfrom fundraising to policy advocacy to services,
(10:58):
so it's the whole game. Well, you mentioned a great pivot for me
in my next question, how areyou funded? We're pretty diverse in terms
of our funding. We rely bothon contributions from individuals. We have helped
many hundreds of thousands of people overthe years, and they and their descendants
in turn helped Highest help the refugeesup today. We get some funding from
(11:18):
the United States government and other governmentsto do partnerships with them, like in
helping refugees integrate into this country.We get some funding from the United Nations
to help countries outside of the helprefugees outside of the United States who need
assistance. And we get some fundingfrom corporations, corporate foundations, private foundations
(11:39):
as well. So it's a verydiverse portfolio. And in addition, we
recently relaunched Highest Europe. And Isay relaunched because Highest was very operational as
I mentioned earlier in Europe in thenineteen twenties and thirties, when European refugees.
European Jews really needed our assistance.We're fleeing thenzification of Europe basically and
(12:03):
needed a place to flee to,and the United States had shut its doors,
so we were there in Europe tryingto find other places for them to
go to. Today we have reopenedin Europe, working with European governments now
through Highest Europe our entity in Brussels, which is legally independent of Highest but
very much a part of the HighestFamily, to raise funds for our operations
(12:24):
around the world. Mark. Idon't want to assume that there are different
programs and capabilities have priorities, butI imagine that there are some that are
more pressing than others. But asyou look, maybe since you rejoined the
company permanently in two thousand and six, are there some programs or some capabilities
or things that the nonprofit is doingthat is really urgent and you're also most
(12:45):
proud of that's happening right now.The very nature of our business is urgency,
and what's really been unusual, Likeas you said, I've been doing
this work for thirty five years,but the last eight years have been extraordinary,
an extraordinary in this that it hasjust been one refugee crisis after another,
and these crises are never have notactually none of them have been solved.
(13:07):
They are just eclipsed by the nextcrisis that they continue. So you
know, for example, twenty fifteen, there was we were well into dealing
with the crisis in Syria, withthe refugee crisis in Syria, the mass
displacement in the Middle East, whicheventually spilled over into Europe. When you
(13:28):
saw the photograph of Elan Kurdie,the little Syrian boy who washed up on
the on the shores of Turkey ashis family was trying to escape to Greece
to get asylum. That refugee crisisthen was eclipsed by the crisis at our
own border, by the Venezuelan refugeecrisis, with the failure of Venezuela as
(13:50):
a state and the mass flight ofVenezuelans from that country to all over South
Central America and now to the UnitedStates as well. The Venezuela crisis was
then further eclipsed by the border crisison our own border, largely by Central
American simple Americans who were fleeing.And then there was the Afghan crisis when
(14:11):
the United States pulled out of Afghanistanand the Ukraine crisis, and now we're
dealing with another displacement in the MiddleEast, within Israel as a result of
the attacks of October seventh, andnow with the refugees who are living in
Gaza and forced to flee their homesand suffering displacement there. So it is
just one crisis after another. Noneof them have been solved, but they
(14:37):
but they still require every single oneof them still requires attention. And I
haven't even mentioned what's going on inSudan or Eritrea or the mass expulsion of
the Rhinga from from Burma, butthese are It truly is a global refugee
crisis. Mark, if you coulddo me a favor because all of that,
(14:58):
and thank you for explaining and expoundingand all that, it brings to
mind a question about the pressure cookerthat you work in. And I imagine
that you have a great team assemblethat helps you in a lot of things,
that's top management and then gets themessage down to all of the staff.
But for our budding CEOs, evencurrent presidents and CEOs out there,
whatever they do, there's a lotof pressure. We always say it's windy,
(15:20):
it's at the top. You're notable to talk to a lot of
people about your issues, your problems, because it's hard to people to understand
at that level all the things thatyou have to deal with. But as
you explain, all the fires thatyou're putting on, and they never really
get extinguish. What's it like todeal with this every day? And where
do you get the opportunity to doyour own release when you're working in this
(15:43):
pressure cooker kind of job. Whatkind of advice do you have for people?
What it's like. That's a reallygood question. One thing is you
have to have a healthy routine,right and so for example, I ride
my bike, and so you haveto do that as not just as a
form of exercise or a form oftransportation, but as a form of stress
release. And you have to havesomething like that that you have to do,
(16:03):
and you cannot let that get consumedby the crises that you are working
on, because if you do that, you will never ever leave your desk,
and you will die at your desk. So you've got you've got to
make sure that you make room andtime for the things that are important for
you for stress release and The otherthing, frankly, is it's really important
to talk to other CEOs. Likejust before I started talking to you,
(16:26):
Dennis, I was talking to theCEOs and two other organizations that we work
very closely with. It's it's thatkind of camaraderie among CEOs because only CEOs
really understand the CEOs yeah are goingthrough. So it's a really important support
network because you're right, it canbe a really lonely job. Well,
it's great advice. I appreciate yousharing something so personal because you know,
(16:48):
it just is that way that whenyou do something so specialized, there's really
only so many people that you canchat with about the good, the bad,
and the ugly. Speaking of which, I would like to talk to
our leaders about this, because Iknow life, especially with nonprofits, is
not always unicorns and rainbows all thetime. With all that said, what
are the current challenges that you andyour team are facing right now? The
biggest one is, I mean,especially in terms of the refugee field,
(17:12):
right, it's the it's the inabilityof this country to solve solvable problems.
Right. We have Congress that hasnot acted on our refugee and asylum laws
in many decades, and so asa result, we are trying to deal
with a modern problem with antiquated tools. It's like, you know, trying
(17:33):
to prevent the sinking of the Titanicwith a mop. You know. Congress
needs to pack, needs to passlaws that are relevant to the time that
we are in and to give thethe the whoever occupies the White House the
tools that they need to get thejob done and to manage migration and to
manage our obligations toward refugees and asylumseekers. But right now those tools are
(17:56):
don't exist, and so we aredoing our very best with these antiquated tools
that we've been given by Congress decadesand decades ago. But that's my biggest
frustration is that Congress is basically andnot this Congress, I mean, every
Congress for the last thirty years,has refused to act on the need to
(18:17):
reform our laws that concern refugees andmigrants, and so as a result,
we have lost control of our immigrationsystem. And this is something that everybody
agrees on, no matter what sideyou are on on the immigration and refugee
debate, we all agree the systemis broken, but nobody is willing to
fix it, can you give mea favor? And I realize this question
(18:37):
is not fair because there's got tobe thousands of wonderful stories out there.
But over the thirty five years thatyou've been there, and then permanently since
two thousand and six, is therea story, whether it was small,
medium, large, that really impactedyou personally where you said, you know
what, we did something pretty specialand this is why I get up every
day and I'm glad to be apart of the organization. Is there a
(19:00):
short story you can share with usas something that that really moved you.
There are a lot. I'll sharean old story, and you know,
we've been around for a long time, as I said, and we had
a role. For example, youmay remember I referred to the fact that
when the Nazis had taken over Europe, had started to go over much of
(19:25):
Europe, there was no right toflee, there was no right to asylum,
and so Jews in particular and otherpersecuted people's were literally trapped inside of
a genocide. And so a lotof what's come out of the post war
era has been trying to make surethat that never happens again. And I'll
just tell the story of one oneparticular person, which is there was there
(19:47):
were a few points of light atthat horrible time, such as a kinder
transport from the United Kingdom, wherechildren who were Jewish children were put on
boats largely in Poland and brought toEngland without their parents in order to survive
Nazi persecution. And there's one personwho that happened to, Manny Lindenbaum,
(20:11):
who to this day is a verygood friend of mine. He and his
brother Zigfried were put on boats theywere both under ten years old at that
time to get to the United Kingdom. Their parents left them because they wanted
to make sure their sons were ableto flee the safety. They tried to
put their sister Anna on the sameboat, but she was thirteen and they
(20:33):
decided she was the kinder transport decidedshe was too old to meet the criteria
for that boat, so she wasturned away. Eventually, Anna and her
parents ended up in Auschwitz and allof them were murdered in a concentration camp.
But Manny and his brother Zigfried madeit to England and then Hyas eventually
brought them from England to Tom's River, New Jersey, where their aunt and
(20:55):
uncle, who were chicken farmers,took them in, even though they themselves
having a lot of tough times,they took them in. And today,
you know, Manny is committed tostanding up for other refugees. And so
even at the age of ninety onehe is now he's still speaking out for
refugees, he's still supporting Hyas.And when he turned when he was in
(21:19):
his mid eighties, he actually madea bike ride to follow his refugee journey
in reverse, going from Poland toGermany and crossing the border on World Refugee
Day to draw attention to the globalrefugee crisis and also to raise money for
higas's refugee programs for Darfi refugees inChad to give them the support, the
(21:44):
mental health and psycho social services thatthey needed that he wasn't able to get
when he was a refugee. Wow, that was a truly incredible story.
Thanks for sharing, Mark, Ireally appreciate that. Mark. I want
to give you the floor as wekind of wrap up our conversation here and
for our listeners, just maybe somefinal takeaways when it comes to highest and
the message you want to leave witheverybody, Well, the most important message
is that the American secret, Ithink to one of the secrets to our
(22:07):
success as a country is that weknow, even though we sometimes forget it,
what other countries don't, and thatis that refugees are not a burden,
but they are a blessing. They'rea blessing when they're allowed to work,
when they're allowed to contribute, theyinvariably do, and yet unfortunately they're
often depicted as a threat, assomething to be scared of. This has
(22:30):
been kind of a national conflict thatwe've had since our founding two hundred years
ago, where there was one inclinationto welcome more people to this country and
another inclination to keep them out asa threat. But the fact of the
matter is that when you look overour history of two hundred and fifty years
now as a country, we've learnedthat refugees have brought so much to this
(22:53):
country, and that belief that theybrought threats with them as well and dangers
with them as well were actually materialized, right. And so that's what we
have to keep in mind when weface so much fear now. In terms
of the refugees were coming into thiscountry today, they're no different than the
refugees who came fifty years ago,one hundred years ago, one hundred and
fifty years ago. They will contributeas long as we allow them to Mark.
(23:18):
If somebody wants to find out moreabout Highest, maybe they are looking
for a possible career, because Iknow you're looking to hire the best to
the best out there, and justmore information. What's the website for everybody?
I'm Highest dot org Highest dot goOrgie, outstanding Mark. It's been
my pleasure to talk to you forthis twenty thirty minutes that we've had a
chance to get to know each otherand visit. Thank you so much and
continue success to you and your team, and we really appreciate you joining us
(23:41):
on CEOs. You shouldnt me too, Thanks Dennis. Our community partner,
M and T Bank supports CEOs youshould know is part of their ongoing commitment
to building strong communities, and thatstarts by backing the businesses within them.
As a bank for communities, Mand T believes in dedicating time, talent,
and resources to help local businesses thrivebecause when businesses succeed, our communities
(24:04):
succeed. M
Wow, M and T Bank presentsCEOs. You should know power by Iheartadia.
Let's me Mark Hetfield. He isthe president and CEO for the Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society also known as HIGAS. Before we talk more about marks don
profit that's been around for more thanone hundred years. I first asked him
to talk a little bit about himself, where he's from and his origin story.
(00:22):
I'm from New Jersey, born andraised in Plainfield and watched on New
Jersey and outside of New York.And I came to Washington, d C.
To go to Georgetown as an undergraduateand became a triple Hoya. I
graduated there from the School of FriendService, and then I got my law
degree from Georgetown, and I'm nowgetting my executive MBA. All right,
(00:44):
so you're going to love this.I've got some affiliations to Georgetown. I've
got a lot of friends that havegone there grade school. When I was
growing up in Falls Church, obviouslyI was a big Hoya fan. And
circle back to two thousand and eight. I moved here to run Red Zebra
Operations, which is ESPN nine eightyand guess who for me on a midday
show? Coach John Thompson. Wow. And when I first met him,
(01:04):
I was so intimidated because remember hewas a whole king of a man,
rip coach. But as I gotto know him, we became good friends.
Over the two years I worked withhim, and he couldn't have been
a nicer man. And I justfelt so fortunate after being a fan all
those years and watching all those greatHoya teams and final fours and Big East
basketball that I know that you're abig part of. When you went there,
(01:26):
it was such a treat to workwith him. He was such a
gentle giant and a really cool man. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Yeah,
that was great. Okay, well, listen, we're going to talk
a lot about HYAS and I knowthat you have a very long history on
and off for thirty five years,folks, which is absolutely incredible. I
think that's longer than some of ourlisteners right now. Martha, you've been
involved with which is an incredible runon and out, but I know permanently
(01:48):
since two thousand and six. Butif you could do me a favor and
our listeners too, can you tellus a little bit about how highest started
in the whole history of it,because I'm really intrigued by that sure,
and we were actually over one hundredand twenty years old. We were started
in nineteen oh three, on Februaryfourteenth, nineteen oh three, in New
York City on the Lower East Side, in response to the mass exodus of
(02:14):
Jews who were fleeing from Russia andEastern Europe, fleeing the anti Semitic for
Gromes, the violence and the povertythat forced them to leave their homes and
come to a new land. Andso we were started to make sure that
people who fled were able to getoff of Ellis Island, like get past
the immigration authorities and come into theUnited States. And then once they did
(02:37):
that, we made sure that theygot shelter and then train tickets on to
destinations outside of New York. Sothat was Hyas's focus when we were first
first founded, but that evolved becausein nineteen twenty one, the United States
Congress was sick and tired of beingdragged into all of Europe's problems, and
(02:58):
very similar to what we're seeing today, there was a they were mixing up
the people who were fleeing the problemsof Europe with the actual problems of Europe,
and the United States became very closedto immigration and basically slammed the door
shut on immigrants in nineteen twenty one, and then locked that door in nineteen
twenty four with a series of lawsthat imposed very strict quotas and also required
(03:24):
people to get advanced permission to cometo the United States to basically get a
visa before they could get on aship and come here. So we could
no longer just sit on Alis Islandand wait for people to come to us
because they weren't able to leave.They weren't able to get permission to go
on those ships. So we wentto Europe and went to other countries around
the world to try to find themplaces that would take them because the United
(03:46):
States had closed its doors. Youknow, Mark, as you tell that
story reminds me of that old adageabout how much things change but they stayed
the same. It's really true here. So that's fascinating. We're going to
talk more about the history and allyour involvement over the last thirty five years.
By listen, you came out withsome great papers. I mean,
were you with to Georgetown all theamazing things that you did in school.
I'm always curious in this series aboutwhat attracts people to a gig And I
(04:11):
know you always haven't been president andCEO, and we'll talk about your ascension
with the organization, but what firstattracted you to the organization about wanting to
join. There's a few things.When I was in college, I was
tutoring. I tutored Central American refugeesand that really made me interested in immigration
and refugees in America's role as acountry of immigrants. And at the same
(04:33):
time, there was the Soviet Jeurymovement going on. As you know,
there was a very strong human rightsmovement around the world, but especially here
in the United States to compel theSoviet Union to let Jewish people emigrate,
particularly to Israel, but also tothe United States and other places where they
had families. So the Soviet JeuryMarch became a big thing while I was
(04:56):
in college on the mall, andthat fired me to look into working for
highest And indeed I answered anat inthe New York Times where they needed a
Russian speaking caseworker to go to Italyto help Jews who were seeing the Soviet
Union get to the United States Italy, and back in those days was a
way station for that and I wasa Soviet studies major at Georgetown. I
(05:18):
learned Rusham while I was there,so I was selected for that job and
started working for Highest in nineteen eightynine. That is very job specific of
what you were doing and fitting intothat role, which is absolutely amazing.
So let's do this before we findout all the things that you do and
introduce Highest to our audience and maybehasn't heard of all the amazing things that
(05:39):
this organization has been over the lastehundred years, especially for you over the
last thirty five years, on andoff. When it comes to the mission
statement, what is that? Well, there's the mission statement, but then
there's also the way we describe ourselves. And I'd say that really goes to
the heart of it, which isthat we used to help refugees because as
(06:00):
they were Jewish. Today we helprefugees because we are Jewish. When I
started working at Highest in nineteen eightynine, we were a Jewish organization that
helped Jewish refugees and back then theneeds we were able to engage ourselves more
than full time because the needs ofJewish refugees were so tremendous. But since
that time, with the collapse ofthe Soviet Union, the disintegration of the
(06:25):
Iron Curtain, and a global refugeecrisis, we've pivoted to being an agency
that's informed by our history, that'smotivated by Jewish values and Jewish teachings,
but that helps every refugee that needsassistance, no matter what their religion is,
no matter what their ethnicity or nationalityor color is. And so we've
(06:46):
become a humanitarian organization in that sense, but when guided by Jewish values,
and in that transformation, we've becomevery diverse, not just in terms of
the people that were helping, butthe people that help them. So our
staff is very diverse and again representsa multitude of faiths and ethnicities and nationalities.
And Mark, I'm guessing that onehundred years nobody would be able to
(07:11):
guess where the ascension has gone inthe growth of the nonprofit. But just
in the last thirty five years,your footprint is frigging worldwide. And even
I'm sure as you've been over thelast thirty five years, it's even probably
astonished you and your team how incrediblethat is. Now. Yeah, absolutely,
we are now in twenty five countriesaround the world. And it's interesting
(07:33):
too, it's not just our geographicfootprint that has changed and the people that
we've we helped it's changed. It'salso the nature of the work because since
nineteen forty eight, frankly, whenwe were helping Jewish refugees, Jews did
have a choice about where they go. They had an option of going to
Israel, or they could choose togo join family or communities in other countries
(07:58):
around the world. And highest wasgenerally the option that they the organization that
they worked with if they wanted togo to the United States to join family
or community here, or Canada orNew Zealand or Australia. But then once
we started working with other populations,once we started working with refugees who were
fleeing let's say Sudan or Somalia orBurma, they didn't have options of places
(08:24):
to go right They didn't have ahomeland that they could go to. They
were essentially stateless with no place togo, and we had to find them
a place. And if we couldn'tfind them a place, and in most
cases you can't because it's so difficultto find countries that are willing to accept
refugees we had to make them safewhere they are. We had to make
them safe in the first countries towhich they've fled. So for that reason,
(08:46):
highest largely focus is now on makingsure people get legal documents so they're
not returned to danger, that theyget the mental health and psycho social services
they need so that they're in abetter position, in a better state of
mind to adjust to their new lifein a new land. And then we
do our best to get them employed, to get themselves sufficient so they can
(09:09):
support themselves in whatever country they havefled to. And only when we can't
do that is resettlement. Looked atresettlement to a third country like the United
States, like Australia, Canada reallyconsidered as an option mark if we could
do this. Before we get intowhat you do, and I know it's
extensive, and there's two thousand peoplethat you're in charge of, and it
(09:30):
really is incredible that that many peoplework in your organization and you're charge to
that with your leadership and all thethings that you have to do as the
leader, But could you do mefever, even though you touched on it
a little bit on a thirty thousandfoot view, if somebody's new and hearing
about higas for the first time,what would you tell them that you exactly
do we help refugees to the extentthat they are not refugees anymore. Like
in other words, our goal isthat when we encounter a refugee anywhere in
(09:54):
the world, we want that personto no longer be a refugee. We
want that person to be at home, to feel at home wherever they are.
Now, with your role as CEOand president, everybody when they run
a company has a certain role ofleadership and dictating to their managers and their
vision and so forth. But sinceI'm new to what you do and so
(10:15):
our listeners, I am super curious. With two thousand people, that just
as overwhelming as it is. Butwith that said, in your role as
president's CEO, what do you do? That's a good question. No,
two days are the same in thisjob. Every day is different, and
it's my job to take credit foreverybody else's great work. Right, So
(10:35):
that's basically what I did. Makesure that the entire machine works well,
that we're able to raise the revenuethat we need to do our work,
that we're able to then do thework to fulfill our mission. Of making
sure that refugees have a place togo and feel at home so that they're
no longer refugees. So it's everythingfrom fundraising to policy advocacy to services,
(10:58):
so it's the whole game. Well, you mentioned a great pivot for me
in my next question, how areyou funded? We're pretty diverse in terms
of our funding. We rely bothon contributions from individuals. We have helped
many hundreds of thousands of people overthe years, and they and their descendants
in turn helped Highest help the refugeesup today. We get some funding from
(11:18):
the United States government and other governmentsto do partnerships with them, like in
helping refugees integrate into this country.We get some funding from the United Nations
to help countries outside of the helprefugees outside of the United States who need
assistance. And we get some fundingfrom corporations, corporate foundations, private foundations
(11:39):
as well. So it's a verydiverse portfolio. And in addition, we
recently relaunched Highest Europe. And Isay relaunched because Highest was very operational as
I mentioned earlier in Europe in thenineteen twenties and thirties, when European refugees.
European Jews really needed our assistance.We're fleeing thenzification of Europe basically and
(12:03):
needed a place to flee to,and the United States had shut its doors,
so we were there in Europe tryingto find other places for them to
go to. Today we have reopenedin Europe, working with European governments now
through Highest Europe our entity in Brussels, which is legally independent of Highest but
very much a part of the HighestFamily, to raise funds for our operations
(12:24):
around the world. Mark. Idon't want to assume that there are different
programs and capabilities have priorities, butI imagine that there are some that are
more pressing than others. But asyou look, maybe since you rejoined the
company permanently in two thousand and six, are there some programs or some capabilities
or things that the nonprofit is doingthat is really urgent and you're also most
(12:45):
proud of that's happening right now.The very nature of our business is urgency,
and what's really been unusual, Likeas you said, I've been doing
this work for thirty five years,but the last eight years have been extraordinary,
an extraordinary in this that it hasjust been one refugee crisis after another,
and these crises are never have notactually none of them have been solved.
(13:07):
They are just eclipsed by the nextcrisis that they continue. So you
know, for example, twenty fifteen, there was we were well into dealing
with the crisis in Syria, withthe refugee crisis in Syria, the mass
displacement in the Middle East, whicheventually spilled over into Europe. When you
(13:28):
saw the photograph of Elan Kurdie,the little Syrian boy who washed up on
the on the shores of Turkey ashis family was trying to escape to Greece
to get asylum. That refugee crisisthen was eclipsed by the crisis at our
own border, by the Venezuelan refugeecrisis, with the failure of Venezuela as
(13:50):
a state and the mass flight ofVenezuelans from that country to all over South
Central America and now to the UnitedStates as well. The Venezuela crisis was
then further eclipsed by the border crisison our own border, largely by Central
American simple Americans who were fleeing.And then there was the Afghan crisis when
(14:11):
the United States pulled out of Afghanistanand the Ukraine crisis, and now we're
dealing with another displacement in the MiddleEast, within Israel as a result of
the attacks of October seventh, andnow with the refugees who are living in
Gaza and forced to flee their homesand suffering displacement there. So it is
just one crisis after another. Noneof them have been solved, but they
(14:37):
but they still require every single oneof them still requires attention. And I
haven't even mentioned what's going on inSudan or Eritrea or the mass expulsion of
the Rhinga from from Burma, butthese are It truly is a global refugee
crisis. Mark, if you coulddo me a favor because all of that,
(14:58):
and thank you for explaining and expoundingand all that, it brings to
mind a question about the pressure cookerthat you work in. And I imagine
that you have a great team assemblethat helps you in a lot of things,
that's top management and then gets themessage down to all of the staff.
But for our budding CEOs, evencurrent presidents and CEOs out there,
whatever they do, there's a lotof pressure. We always say it's windy,
(15:20):
it's at the top. You're notable to talk to a lot of
people about your issues, your problems, because it's hard to people to understand
at that level all the things thatyou have to deal with. But as
you explain, all the fires thatyou're putting on, and they never really
get extinguish. What's it like todeal with this every day? And where
do you get the opportunity to doyour own release when you're working in this
(15:43):
pressure cooker kind of job. Whatkind of advice do you have for people?
What it's like. That's a reallygood question. One thing is you
have to have a healthy routine,right and so for example, I ride
my bike, and so you haveto do that as not just as a
form of exercise or a form oftransportation, but as a form of stress
release. And you have to havesomething like that that you have to do,
(16:03):
and you cannot let that get consumedby the crises that you are working
on, because if you do that, you will never ever leave your desk,
and you will die at your desk. So you've got you've got to
make sure that you make room andtime for the things that are important for
you for stress release and The otherthing, frankly, is it's really important
to talk to other CEOs. Likejust before I started talking to you,
(16:26):
Dennis, I was talking to theCEOs and two other organizations that we work
very closely with. It's it's thatkind of camaraderie among CEOs because only CEOs
really understand the CEOs yeah are goingthrough. So it's a really important support
network because you're right, it canbe a really lonely job. Well,
it's great advice. I appreciate yousharing something so personal because you know,
(16:48):
it just is that way that whenyou do something so specialized, there's really
only so many people that you canchat with about the good, the bad,
and the ugly. Speaking of which, I would like to talk to
our leaders about this, because Iknow life, especially with nonprofits, is
not always unicorns and rainbows all thetime. With all that said, what
are the current challenges that you andyour team are facing right now? The
biggest one is, I mean,especially in terms of the refugee field,
(17:12):
right, it's the it's the inabilityof this country to solve solvable problems.
Right. We have Congress that hasnot acted on our refugee and asylum laws
in many decades, and so asa result, we are trying to deal
with a modern problem with antiquated tools. It's like, you know, trying
(17:33):
to prevent the sinking of the Titanicwith a mop. You know. Congress
needs to pack, needs to passlaws that are relevant to the time that
we are in and to give thethe the whoever occupies the White House the
tools that they need to get thejob done and to manage migration and to
manage our obligations toward refugees and asylumseekers. But right now those tools are
(17:56):
don't exist, and so we aredoing our very best with these antiquated tools
that we've been given by Congress decadesand decades ago. But that's my biggest
frustration is that Congress is basically andnot this Congress, I mean, every
Congress for the last thirty years,has refused to act on the need to
(18:17):
reform our laws that concern refugees andmigrants, and so as a result,
we have lost control of our immigrationsystem. And this is something that everybody
agrees on, no matter what sideyou are on on the immigration and refugee
debate, we all agree the systemis broken, but nobody is willing to
fix it, can you give mea favor? And I realize this question
(18:37):
is not fair because there's got tobe thousands of wonderful stories out there.
But over the thirty five years thatyou've been there, and then permanently since
two thousand and six, is therea story, whether it was small,
medium, large, that really impactedyou personally where you said, you know
what, we did something pretty specialand this is why I get up every
day and I'm glad to be apart of the organization. Is there a
(19:00):
short story you can share with usas something that that really moved you.
There are a lot. I'll sharean old story, and you know,
we've been around for a long time, as I said, and we had
a role. For example, youmay remember I referred to the fact that
when the Nazis had taken over Europe, had started to go over much of
(19:25):
Europe, there was no right toflee, there was no right to asylum,
and so Jews in particular and otherpersecuted people's were literally trapped inside of
a genocide. And so a lotof what's come out of the post war
era has been trying to make surethat that never happens again. And I'll
just tell the story of one oneparticular person, which is there was there
(19:47):
were a few points of light atthat horrible time, such as a kinder
transport from the United Kingdom, wherechildren who were Jewish children were put on
boats largely in Poland and brought toEngland without their parents in order to survive
Nazi persecution. And there's one personwho that happened to, Manny Lindenbaum,
(20:11):
who to this day is a verygood friend of mine. He and his
brother Zigfried were put on boats theywere both under ten years old at that
time to get to the United Kingdom. Their parents left them because they wanted
to make sure their sons were ableto flee the safety. They tried to
put their sister Anna on the sameboat, but she was thirteen and they
(20:33):
decided she was the kinder transport decidedshe was too old to meet the criteria
for that boat, so she wasturned away. Eventually, Anna and her
parents ended up in Auschwitz and allof them were murdered in a concentration camp.
But Manny and his brother Zigfried madeit to England and then Hyas eventually
brought them from England to Tom's River, New Jersey, where their aunt and
(20:55):
uncle, who were chicken farmers,took them in, even though they themselves
having a lot of tough times,they took them in. And today,
you know, Manny is committed tostanding up for other refugees. And so
even at the age of ninety onehe is now he's still speaking out for
refugees, he's still supporting Hyas.And when he turned when he was in
(21:19):
his mid eighties, he actually madea bike ride to follow his refugee journey
in reverse, going from Poland toGermany and crossing the border on World Refugee
Day to draw attention to the globalrefugee crisis and also to raise money for
higas's refugee programs for Darfi refugees inChad to give them the support, the
(21:44):
mental health and psycho social services thatthey needed that he wasn't able to get
when he was a refugee. Wow, that was a truly incredible story.
Thanks for sharing, Mark, Ireally appreciate that. Mark. I want
to give you the floor as wekind of wrap up our conversation here and
for our listeners, just maybe somefinal takeaways when it comes to highest and
the message you want to leave witheverybody, Well, the most important message
is that the American secret, Ithink to one of the secrets to our
(22:07):
success as a country is that weknow, even though we sometimes forget it,
what other countries don't, and thatis that refugees are not a burden,
but they are a blessing. They'rea blessing when they're allowed to work,
when they're allowed to contribute, theyinvariably do, and yet unfortunately they're
often depicted as a threat, assomething to be scared of. This has
(22:30):
been kind of a national conflict thatwe've had since our founding two hundred years
ago, where there was one inclinationto welcome more people to this country and
another inclination to keep them out asa threat. But the fact of the
matter is that when you look overour history of two hundred and fifty years
now as a country, we've learnedthat refugees have brought so much to this
(22:53):
country, and that belief that theybrought threats with them as well and dangers
with them as well were actually materialized, right. And so that's what we
have to keep in mind when weface so much fear now. In terms
of the refugees were coming into thiscountry today, they're no different than the
refugees who came fifty years ago,one hundred years ago, one hundred and
fifty years ago. They will contributeas long as we allow them to Mark.
(23:18):
If somebody wants to find out moreabout Highest, maybe they are looking
for a possible career, because Iknow you're looking to hire the best to
the best out there, and justmore information. What's the website for everybody?
I'm Highest dot org Highest dot goOrgie, outstanding Mark. It's been
my pleasure to talk to you forthis twenty thirty minutes that we've had a
chance to get to know each otherand visit. Thank you so much and
continue success to you and your team, and we really appreciate you joining us
(23:41):
on CEOs. You shouldnt me too, Thanks Dennis. Our community partner,
M and T Bank supports CEOs youshould know is part of their ongoing commitment
to building strong communities, and thatstarts by backing the businesses within them.
As a bank for communities, Mand T believes in dedicating time, talent,
and resources to help local businesses thrivebecause when businesses succeed, our communities
(24:04):
succeed. M
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