Hands of Hope: Helping Them to Move Forward

Alicia Brozovich
Jun 3, 2025
3 min read

Updated: Jun 3, 2025

TCJ/IRRC and Interfaith-RISE Support Refugees in the Trenton Area

by Sharmila Sachdev, LOTUS Chorale

As we move into the month of June, our Remembrance and Resilience festival series continues, inviting audiences to engage with the past and present through a tapestry of artistic expression and shared human experience. The festival will culminate in Membra Hostri: Hands of Hope, a choral-instrumental concert and gallery exhibit at the Trenton War Memorial on June 15.

👉 Festival Info

Instrumental to festival partnerships have been two members of TCJ/IRRC (The Jewish Center’s Interfaith Refugee Resettlement Committee), Louise Sandburg and Alison Politziner. Sharing her insights, Louise spoke with us to comment on her organization’s mission and background, it’s affiliation with Interfaith-RISE (Interfaith Refugee and Immigrant Services and Empowerment) and how their work aids refugee families needing basic support as they resettle in the greater Mercer County area.

Esau is one of the many individuals served by Interfaith-RISE. His story is featured in the festival's digital gallery and artwork to be displayed throughout the festival events.

To witness stories like these brought to life Join us for a panel discussion with members of I-Rise in anticipation of the preview concert and composer talk Fugitive Footsteps at Stone Hill Church on Sunday, June 8 at 4:00 p.m.

Reserve your tickets and learn more at:

🎟 Refuge or Refusal (Wednesday, June 4)

🎟 Fugitive Footsteps (Sunday, June 8)

Interview with Louise Sandberg

On Refugee Resettlement and Interfaith Collaboration

Interview by Sharmila Sachdev

Sharmila Sachdev (SS): What do you find so meaningful about the work you do with TCJ/IRRC and Interfaith-RISE?

Louise Sandberg (LS): It’s amazing work: to see these families move forward. To find their way, become self-sufficient and make a new life. Being involved in this process is quite incredible.

SS: Can you share a little bit about your mission and some of the populations you serve?

LS: Our synagogue has always welcomed Jews from around the world. Remember Albert Einstein? We have Soviet Jews and we still have Argentinian and French Jews coming in. We have families who fled the Nazis and grew up in Cuba, Peru and South Africa --and then they came here. That’s the Jewish story. We have always been a home to refugees.

Now we have these Ugandan men, including Esau, who is having his portrait painted as we speak. He and his friend worked for democracy in Uganda and had to flee. It’s too dangerous to go back, so TCJ/IRRC is supporting them.

SS: And of course denomination does not matter with your efforts to support various groups?

LS: We are an Interfaith organization. Denomination has nothing to do with who we support. There was a group of five of us who started TJC/IRRC. Our founding members included a woman who was a Mennonite, but actually part of the Quaker Meeting. And also a woman from the Methodist church who brought in another Methodist.

SS: And what you just described was the foundation of your organization, TCJ/IRRC?

LS: Yes, that’s right.

SS: How are you affiliated with and how did your collaboration with Interfaith-RISE come about?

LS: Our organization started in 2015 and then joined forces with Interfaith-RISE a year later. Our shared mission is to support recently arrived families as they establish new lives in our communities.

Interfaith-RISE was founded by Reverend Seth Kaper-Dale in 2016, who we went to for help when one of our clients needed housing. We decided to work collaboratively and joined as the Princeton Chapter of I-RISE.

We work closely with the Trenton office. It is an amazing place with a small handful of people working there.

SS: The work that you do seems like a lifeline to these refugee communities who are in need, many times in desperate need.

LS: Yes, our clients are terrified with this administration. In the Trenton office I-RISE office the focus is on the Haitian community. These people came into the U.S. legally with Humanitarian Parole under one of President Joe Biden’s Executive Orders. Now the current administration has rescinded this order. And look at the Ukrainians—what do they have to go back to? What’s happening in our country?