Jews see parallels to the past in refugee crisis

NEW JERSEY (FOX 5 NEWS) - The story of the Holocaust is in Allan Chernoff's blood. His mother, Rena, 11 years old at the time, was liberated by Soviet troops from the Auschwitz death camp in 1945. His mother and other family are survivors of the holocaust. They were also once refugees desperate to enter the United States.

He says the doors were closed in the United States for many immigrants who tried to escape the Holocaust. He says now we have genocide in Syria. And that is why, he says, many in the Jewish community are standing with many in the Muslim community to speak out against President Trump's executive order that restricts refugees and immigrants from certain countries.

Chernoff is a member at one of three congregations -- Beth El, Temple Sharey-Tefilo Israel and Oheb Shalom in South Orange, New Jersey -- that are banding together to help a Syrian family that arrived three days before the inauguration. They were among the last to enter the country before the order.

Chernoff says that history always repeats itself so people have to learn from it and recognize that there is another way.

 His book "The Tailors of Tomaszow" details his family's journey. His mother was finally allowed into America 10 years after the start of the war.