News & Views

HIAS PA’s 2023 Golden Door Awards

Honoree Spotlight: Blank Rome LLP

As a firm that was founded in Philadelphia in 1946 by lawyers who were excluded from joining other firms on the basis of their religion, Blank Rome LLP has remained committed to their vision of creating a firm where people of diverse religious and racial backgrounds could gather to practice law.

Blank Rome LLP is an American Lawyer (Am Law) 100 firm with 14 offices and more than 650 attorneys and principals who provide a full range of legal and advocacy services to clients operating around the world. Blank Rome LLP is deeply committed to local community outreach, diversity and inclusion efforts, pro bono services, and volunteer programs.

As soon as the Afghan legal crisis began to unfold following the fall of Kabul in 2021, Blank Rome LLP’s pro bono program immediately wanted to help. The firm took on several Humanitarian Parole cases for Afghans seeking to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. In early 2022, Blank Rome LLP put together teams from across the country to represent Afghan parolees who were brought to the United States as part of Operation Allies Refuge. These parolees were granted only two years of status and therefore needed to file asylum applications to remain in the United States beyond those two years.

In total, 43 Blank Rome LLP attorneys, along with many more paralegals and staff members, have helped file asylum applications for ten Afghan parolees and their family members. Since then, the teams have also filed additional applications to help these clients continue to have authorization to work legally in the United States so they can support their families.

While we continue to await the government’s decisions on all of these applications, because of Blank Rome LLP’s expertise and advocacy, HIAS PA’s Afghan clients are in the best legal position possible as they continue to build their new lives in the United States.

G'mar chatima tova.

HIAS Pennsylvania's office will be closed on Monday, September 25th, in observance of Yom Kippur. 

TONIGHT (4/20) - Join us ONLINE at the 2023 Golden Door Awards!

Join us ONLINE at 6:45PM TONIGHT, Thursday, April 20th, for HIAS PA's 2023 Golden Door Awards: United for Immigrants!

Happy Passover from HIAS Pennsylvania!HIAS PA is closed in observance of the Jewish holiday of Passover

HIAS Pennsylvania will be closed in observance of the Jewish holiday of Passover from 1PM on Wednesday, April 5th through Friday, April 7th, and on Wednesday, April 12th and Thursday, April 13th.

Join us at the 2023 Golden Door Awards!United for Immigrants

The Golden Door Awards is HIAS Pennsylvania's annual fundraiser. Your generous support helps us serve low-income immigrants from all over the world as they build new lives in our community.

Building closed until further noticeHIAS PA remains open!

HIAS PA’s physical offices at 600 Chestnut Street are CLOSED until further notice due to a burst pipe in the building.

Our organization remains open, and HIAS PA staff continue to work remotely at this time.

Please call (215) 832-0900 with any questions.

Building closed until further noticeHIAS PA remains open!

HIAS PA’s physical offices at 600 Chestnut Street are CLOSED until further notice due to a burst pipe in the building.

Our organization remains open, and HIAS PA staff continue to work remotely at this time.

Please call (215) 832-0900 with any questions.

TONIGHT: Join us at the table!Join us for Thankful Together!

Thankful Together, formerly known as Refugee Thanksgiving, is happening TONIGHT at 6PM!

Register here to join us tonight: https://hiaspa1.wpengine.com/event/thankful-together-2021/

Celebrate our volunteers who make this all possible!Click here at 11:45AM to join our Annual Meeting!

Click here to join our virtual Annual Meeting!

The Annual Meeting starts at noon, but join us at 11:45AM for an informal chat before the event!

POSTPONED! Speed Advocacy: Afghanistan

Today's Speed Advocacy: Afghanistan Facebook Live event has been postponed due to a worldwide Facebook outage. We will update you as soon as possible about rescheduling the event.