As Jews, we know all too well what it is like to be displaced. While UJS stands strongly in solidarity with all those who are currently being displaced by war, we’ve compiled a list of resources about how people in the UK can help support refugees fleeing Ukraine, as well as supporting those that can’t.
If you would like to organise an event locally with your J-Soc, please contact Shayna
You can get involved in multiple ways - see below 🡻
Collections Donations & Appeals Volunteering Petitions
Collections
UJS and J-Socs around the country are working with Sebby’s Corner, who are a family essentials distribution center for refugees and disadvantaged families. We’ve have create a list of items that you and your J-Soc can collect. Click on this link to check what your J-Soc is being asked to collect, and we'll sort out getting it to London.
Donations & Appeals
“We are the British Jewish community’s international humanitarian agency. Inspired by Jewish values, we empower people in poverty to live with dignity, self-reliance and hope. We support the world’s poorest Jewish communities, predominantly in Eastern Europe, because kol arayvim zeh la’zeh – all Jews are responsible for one another. We work beyond our community, inspired by the Jewish values of caring for the stranger and recognising the dignity and potential of all people.”
For every £1 we receive from a donation, 81p is spent on our life-changing projects supporting older Jewish people and those escaping poverty or facing humanitarian crisis. We invest the other 19p to manage our income and to help raise the next pound.
Founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in 1881 to assist Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe, HIAS has touched the life of nearly every Jewish family in America and now welcomes all who have fled persecution.
Originally established in 2001 to assist Jewish migrants emigrating from Ukraine to the United States, HIAS’ presence today is through a partnership with Right to Protection (R2P), an independent Ukrainian NGO based in Kyiv with offices across Ukraine, (including in government-controlled areas of Donbas, East Ukraine).
Accepting emergency donations
In the tense months leading up to the current crisis, JDC was already addressing dire economic needs among Ukraine’s poorest Jews in the face of sharply rising food, medicine, and utility prices. With the current situation, JDC is using their partners on the ground to coordinate their emergency response. Their work includes continuing to provide those they serve with extra essentials like food and medicine, coordinating and handling displaced persons including arranging transport and accommodations in Western Ukraine, Moldova and across Europe, and engaging and readying their volunteers, staff and network of Hesed social service centers to address emerging needs as events unfold.
Accepting emergency donations
Charidy Fundraiser - Help set up a Refugee Camp for the Kyiv Jewish Community
With the threat of war, there is an immediate peril to the 60,000 Jews of Ukraine, especially to those living in the large cities who are being advised to evacuate to smaller towns until the danger passes. The Jewish community currently owns a summer camp about 100 kilometers to the west of Kiev, an area that is deemed much safer than the big city.
The camp is hurriedly being prepared to house up to 320 people from the community, including many children whose parents are sending them out of the path of danger.
Donate to the campaign
Tikva’s core mission is to care for the homeless, abandoned and abused Jewish children of Odessa and neighboring regions of the Former Soviet Union.
Donate to the emergency campaign
IsraAID is deploying an emergency team to Moldova, which saw more than 15,800 Ukrainians crossing in the first 24 hours. IsraAID's team will provide urgent relief and Psychological First Aid, and conduct ongoing assessments to prepare for additional responses as the situation unfolds.
IsraAID has worked extensively with refugees in Europe and around the world in recent years. In 2021, IsraAID launched an ongoing program in Albania supporting refugees evacuated from Afghanistan. Following the explosion of the Middle East refugee crisis in 2015, IsraAID launched long-term refugee support programs in Greece and Germany. IsraAID has also worked supporting displaced populations, including in post-conflict settings and protracted crises, in countries such as Colombia, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda.
Any funds not utilized as part of this response will be used as part of IsraAID’s Emergency Response Fund
Donate to the emergency campaign
British-Ukrainian Aid supports people suffering from the war and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine by aligning UK and Ukrainian efforts. We offer assistance to vulnerable individuals who have been physically, mentally or socially disadvantaged, including the injured and wounded, orphaned children, the elderly, internally displaced persons and families who have lost their main earners.
Donate to the emergency campaign
Also check out this guide to Ukrainian charities for international supporters
Volunteering
This form has the aim to collect all private or organisations' availabilities to host Ukrainian refugees and provide a range of services to them.
Please make sure to be specific in the assistance you are able to provide: housing, kosher food, medicine etc.
There is a possibility for you to EDIT your answers. If you fill the form and your answers change, please email [email protected] and [email protected] to flag your edits.
The New North London Synagogue runs a variety of programming to support refugees, notably their drop in program. The Drop in supports over 450 destitute asylum seekers and their children every month. Our volunteers offer legal signposting, appointments with doctors and therapists, nutritious cooked food, nearly-new or new clothing and footwear and a welcoming, warm and friendly space. Every client also receives a supermarket voucher and travel expenses.
They also provide one to one counselling and confidence–building group arts activities for young refugees in partnership with Barnet Refugee Service and Wac Arts. They have some great links with other community orgs and work actively to support refugees arriving in the UK.
Petitions
The Anti-Refugee Bill (Nationality and Borders Bill) is soon returning to the House of Commons, which means it is time for us to use our voices and contact our local MPs and raise our concerns as a community that historically relies on just and fair laws for asylum seekers and migrants. Use Rene Cassin's letter template for Jewish constituents to write to your MP. You're also encouraged to reshare Rene Cassin's statement on the government's response to the current refugee crisis.
Petition to waive visa requirement for Ukrainian refugees
Join other nations in providing a route to safety for refugees. Waive all visa requirements for Ukrainian passport holders arriving in the UK.
Imagine you are a pharmacist in a country torn apart by conflict. You passed all your exams and started working. But then the government of your country changed and you started to face persecution. You have to leave your job and flee to another country; one you consider 'safe'.
Once there you claim asylum. Then you wait. Whilst you are waiting for your claim to be heard, you receive £5.39 per day to live on. You continue to wait. Six months have now passed and you are finding it hard to make ends meet.
What can you do to help your situation? Your new country is short of pharmacists, and you apply decide to try to get a job to give you more money to live on and restore your lost dignity.
Ah, but there's a problem. Your new country doesn't allow asylum seekers to work. They would rather pay you £5.39 per day in benefits than to allow you work, and therefore pay taxes.
Unfortunately, this is the situation facing 10,000 asylum seekers in the UK today.
Together with a coalition of 90 other organisations, we are calling on the government to 'lift the ban' and allow asylum seekers to work if their claims have not been settled within six months.
With the current influx of refugees, this campaign has increased importance.
Sign their open letter here.