By Bettie Forman 

AJPR (Austin Jews and Partners for Refugees) began as a group of volunteers from the Austin Jewish community who wanted to make an impact assisting refugees. Russ Apfel and Nancy Wolf, husband, and wife volunteers, brought together a group of grassroot volunteers from across the Jewish  community during the emergency airlift of Afghan refugees in 2021. Because so many felt compelled to help, they soon became an organization of broad-based Austin interfaith and community-based partnerships.

From September 2021 to May 2022, and in partnership with Refugee Services of Texas, a refugee resettlement agency, the grass-roots group of volunteers touched almost all of the 1000 Afghan refugees who settled in Austin. They mobilized in the crisis to provide transportation, meals, groceries, and many connections to other services. They raised over $150,000 monetary and $70,000 in kind donations that went directly to refugee families and provided about 20,000 hours of volunteer time and energy with over 200 volunteers.

In the last two years, AJPR partnered closely with Shalom Austin Jewish Family Service to hire a volunteer coordinator and engage more Jewish community members in their important work while building stronger ties with faith organizations and AISD, in order to better support refugees. AJPR and JFS are grateful to the Shapiro Foundation for lifting up their work with additional support and grant funding.

Since the emergency airlift of Afghan refugees to Austin, AJPR has focused on programs to assist refugee families more fully integrate into the Austin community. They have worked with not only Afghan families, but refugees from all over the world. After becoming a 501c3 non-profit, AJPR entered a phase of partnerships with other organizations within the Austin community, to provide help for post-settlement of refugee families. AJPR was the key group supporting Refugee Services of Texas with assistance for medical care, ESL programs, furniture pickup and storage, apartment set up, groceries to families who have food insecurities, and anything else the families might need.

Refugee Services of Texas closed its doors in the Spring of 2023 after 45 years as the prime resettlement agency in the state. HIAS (Hebrew Immigration Aid Society) arrived in Austin to help fill part of the gap left by the departure of RST. Austin is once again bringing in new refugee families and AJPR is acting as the volunteer arm of HIAS and providing all the same services to new refugees coming to Austin through HIAS as they did in their inception. Today, AJPR is helping to resettle more refugees in Austin from around the world the same way they resettled the Afghans in the beginning.

Tragically, AJPR and the whole community sustained a huge loss earlier in October when Apfel, AJPR co-founder passed away. He was the heart and soul of AJPR and a giant in the refugee resettlement community in Austin. Apfel’s legacy lives on through his love of his family, his Jewish faith and the lives of so many who were touched by Russ’s generosity and kind spirit.

For more information about Russ’s legacy, Austin Jews and Partners for Refugees, visit www.austinjewsandpartners.org.