World Jewish Relief is a UK based, international Jewish charity. Inspired by Jewish values, its mission is to transform the lives of primarily, but not exclusively vulnerable Jewish communities, outside the UK and Israel, by reducing poverty and enabling lasting, sustainable change.
Additionally, at times of major international disaster, WJR leads UK Jewry’s response to those most affected, irrespective of their race, religion or ethnicity. WJR helps overcome appalling poverty, despair and isolation and enhance community infrastructure enabling people to build a better future.
WJR’s work is carried out in 13 countries through trusted partners on the ground, providing first rate assistance to people in need. Projects are located in the Former Soviet Union (Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Latvia and Lithuania), Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Serbia, Poland), Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Zimbabwe), Asia (India and Japan) and the Caribbean (Haiti).
Established in 1933 as the Central British Fund, the charity rescued over 100,000 Jewish people from Germany before WWII and was also largely responsible for organizing the Kindertransport whereby 10,000 unaccompanied, mainly Jewish children, were brought over from Nazi-occupied Europe. This assistance to refugees continued after the war in Aden, Hungry, Czechoslovakia, Iraq, Ethiopia and Egypt.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, CBF increased its focus on two million Jews living there, many of whom were impoverished, urgently needing support. In 1994 CBF changed its name to World Jewish Relief and integrated with World Jewish Aid in 2007, continuing to meet both Jewish and non-Jewish development needs.
Updates about WJR:
Although this is my ninth year leading this astonishing organisation, I am constantly amazed by our remarkable ability to convert a pound coin in a tin here in the UK to a food card in Ukraine. Slowly but surely, we are lessening vulnerability across the Former Soviet Union. Lives are being transformed. Change is happening. […]
World Jewish Relief is leading British Jewry’s response to the Ebola crisis, with synagogue movements and communal institutions from right across the community supporting the appeal. Ebola is devastating communities across West Africa. Over 5,000 people have died. Away from the TV cameras, though, a hidden crisis is developing. Thousands of children have been made […]
At the end of 2013 we included a piece in our newsletter discussing the fantastic work that World Jewish Relief were doing in response to the terrible disaster caused by Typhoon Haiyan. Following on from this, WJR are pleased to provide an update on the situation in the Philippines. It is now nine months since […]
Richard Verber, Campaigns Manager at World Jewish Relief, talks about its involvement in the IF campaign. With enough food in the world to feed everyone, but with one in eight people hungry and prices more volatile than ever, we know our global food system is broken. World Jewish Relief knows first-hand how the vulnerable communities […]