World Jewish Relief (now WJR) began life in 1933 as the Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBF)and was established to rescue Jews from the horrors taking place in Nazi Germany bringing 70,000 Jewish people to safety before the start of World War II.

KEY FACTS

70,000 Jewish people were brought to safety by CBF (now WJR) before the start of World War II.

In 1984, WJR provided support to Operation Moses, bringing Ethiopian refugees to Israel.

In 1989, following the collapse of the Iron Curtain, WJR supported hundreds of refugees emigrating to both Israel and the US. It became increasingly clear that the situation of the nearly two million Jews remaining in the Former Soviet Union (FSU) was desperate. Its work in the region continues today.

In 1938, just three weeks after Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass in Germany and Austria) CBF instigated the Kindertransports, which in total rescued 10,000 mainly Jewish children and brought them to safety in Britain.

Post WWII, CBF faced three main tasks: the care of refugees in the UK; the provision of relief and support to survivors abroad; and bringing orphaned child survivors to the UK. The Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad was established to create centres of care and support for survivors, as well as a tracing bureau to help reconnect families. Community centres were established providing crucial support to survivors trying to rebuild their lives. And in August 1945 CBF brought 305 children, mainly boys, to the UK, latterly and infamously referred to as THE BOYS.

CBF began then to respond to the needs of Jewish communities around the globe as and when they arose. From helping Jews who had left Tunisia to start a new life in France in the early 1960s to assisting the evacuation of 4,000 Jews from Czechoslovakia after the Soviet invasion of ’68, CBF’s work was far reaching.

In 1978, CBF changed its name to World Jewish Relief (WJR)to more clearly represent the global reach of its work.

In 1984, WJR provided support to Operation Moses, bringing Ethiopian refugees to Israel.

In 1989, following the collapse of the Iron Curtain, WJR supported hundreds of refugees emigrating to both Israel and the US. It became increasingly clear that the situation of the nearly two million Jews remaining in the Former Soviet Union (FSU) was desperate, with a great many living well below the poverty line. Many of the remaining Jews were elderly Holocaust survivors without a family or support network. WJR began to focus on this area, developing welfare services such as old-people’s homes, day centres, canteens, food parcels, clothing and meals-on-wheels.

In 1998, two very successful programmes were launched, between them both bringing a new lease of life to many of those living in the communities supported by its work. The Gifts in Kind (GiK) programme was established, shipping humanitarian aid donations from companies and individuals in the UK to communities across the FSU and further afield. Today over 25 shipments are sent to seven countries every year. The Optical Programme, run entirely by volunteers, today provides prescription spectacles to over 5,000 people every year.

In 2007 with the full integration of World Jewish Aid, WJR positioned itself as the main overseas aid charity responding on behalf of the UK Jewish community to both Jewish and non-Jewish needs and emergencies.

WJR has operated in Aden, Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Serbia, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan/Chad, Syria, Tunisia, Ukraine, Yemen, Yugoslavia ad Zimbabwe.

Today, with its global outlook, WJR stands as the leading UK international agency responding to the needs of Jewish communities at risk or in crisis, outside the UK and Israel. At times of major international disaster, we lead the UK Jewish community's response to others in need.