Support to start a new life
WHEN THE JC asked me for a contribution to its wonderful charity supplement on rebuilding lives, I couldn’t decide where to begin. World Jewish Relief was established in 1933 for that exact purpose: to rebuild lives. In the 1930s and 1940s alone, we helped to rescue over 65,000 Jews from Nazi persecution and supported them in their new lives. One striking example was the Kindertransport.
The Kindertransport saved the lives of about 10,000 predominantly Jewish children. Following Kristallnacht, the idea to rescue children was proposed to the British Government by two of World Jewish Relief’s founders, alongside other organisations, and a delegation of prominent British Jews. After a 45-minute appeal directly to PM Neville Chamberlain, the British Government agreed to permit entry to these children, under the UK Jewish community’s financial guarantee. World Jewish Relief, then the Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBF), raised funds and provided support to help the children rebuild their lives in Britain.
But it would be a mistake to think this work is consigned to the history books. Some of those 10,000 children we rescued 85 years ago are still alive and continue to inspire us with their resilience. We also receive thousands of requests to our free archives, which hold incredible documents for many of the people we helped, including school records, letters and records of our financial support. In Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya, we’re supporting vulnerable youth and farmers, through financial, agricultural and vocational training. In Nepal, we’re helping marginalised communities build resilience to a changing climate, through life-changing agricultural training. And across eastern Europe, in Moldova, Poland and, of course, Ukraine, we’re supporting people to find work, so they no longer need to rely on handouts.
This approach, helping someone to help themselves, is a deeply Jewish one. Maimonides taught that the highest level of charity is supporting someone through a business partnership or loan, to get them back on to their feet. This value underpinned our approach in the 1940s and it underpins our work today.
In the two years since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, lives and livelihoods have been devastated. With over 30 years of involvement in Ukraine, we’ve established an extensive network of local partners. We’re continuing to meet immediate humanitarian needs and provide lifesaving homecare and home repairs to older people and those with disabilities. But we also continue to assist Ukrainians into employment. Having a job at a time of war provides more than just an income — it gives a focus and a sense of purpose and maintains some normality when all around is chaos.
Millions of Ukrainians have also been forced to seek sanctuary in foreign lands. Through our local partners we’re addressing their diverse needs in neighbouring countries such as Poland and Moldova. Closer to home, and after winning a major Government contract, we’re helping up to 10,000 Ukrainian refugees in the UK to learn English and find meaningful employment in line with their experience level.
This work in so many ways connects our past to our present. Born out of the absolute need to rescue Jewish people from Nazi oppression, we supported people from eastern Europe before, during and after the Second World War with resettlement, jobs and skills that would enable them to feel at home in the UK. And now, 91 years later, with Ukrainians, Afghans and refugees from other communities, we hope we are playing a small part in contributing positively to helping them build a new life here in the UK.