Supporting Immigrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers Giving Guide

Global forced migration is one of the most profound challenges of our time. Conflicts and violence that lead to displacement create long-term ripples of need for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in the United States and internationally. As of December 2020, there were 281 million international migrants globally, 3.6 percent of the world’s population.1 With the events in Ukraine beginning in February 2022, that number has at least increased by over 4 million refugees and over 7.1 million internally displaced people.2

The Jewish community has historically supported refugees and immigrants because they were fellow Jews. In today’s world of mass migration and increased global conflict, helping the general population of people forced from their homes reflects the underlying Jewish values that make this issue area particularly compelling.

1 UN International Office of Migration, World Migration Report 2022. 
2 UN International Office of Migration, Ukraine Response 2022.

We highly recommend the organizations listed here which were curated by the leaders of the Federation’s Global Jewish Citizens Fund giving circle project. We encourage you to consider supporting these organizations which are divided into the following areas:

Jewish and Israeli Organizations
Bay Area Organizations

If you are interested in opening a Federation donor-advised fund to facilitate your giving, start here.

Jewish and Israeli Organizations

HIAS

HIAS is the world’s oldest refugee agency, formally established as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in 1902. While originally set up by Jews to help fellow Jews for reasons of religious imperative and communal solidarity, HIAS in the 2020s is a multi-continent, multi-pronged humanitarian aid and advocacy organization. Thousands of HIAS employees help forcibly displaced persons around the world, in keeping with the organization’s Jewish ethical roots. HIAS is one of nine agencies accredited to work with the United States government to resettle refugees and asylum seekers, and the only Jewish agency allowed to do so.

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Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay

Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay (JFCS-EB) serves new arrivals, immigrants, older adults, and families in Alameda and Country Costa counties. JFCS-EB is uniquely situated to serve Ukrainian new arrivals through the Integration Support program. This is a referral-based program connecting new arrivals with housing assistance and immigration legal services as part of the federal Uniting for Ukraine sponsorship program. Assistance will focus on legal advising, cultural orientation, job applications, applications for social services, school enrollment, and access to other needed support. 
EIN: 94-3250304

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Olim Beyahad

Olim Beyahad works with Ethiopian Israeli university students and graduates to enable them to utilize their potential of excellence and integrate into suitable employment at the forefront of the Israeli workforce. The organization also works with leading employers and influential figures to facilitate participants’ proper integration, empower Ethiopian Israeli leadership, and reduce stereotypes and prejudices. Three main programs – Employment Excellence, Education Track, and Executive Training Program – have over a network of over 1,400 graduates.
EIN: 13-1624240

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Project Kesher

In 1989 Project Kesher was founded to support a growing network of Jewish women leaders in Belarus, Georgia, Russia, Moldova, and Ukraine to empower women and support the return of Jewish life to the post-Soviet states. Project Kesher Israel (PKI) has taken on a major role in settling Ukrainian immigrants and providing for their immediate medical, mental health, legal, and educational needs. Among the new Ukrainian refugee population to Israel, those who cannot establish Jewish status are forced out of government-provided lodging after 30 days. These women and children have no housing, food, healthcare, or ulpan and are at the mercy of predators. Project Kesher is working to form a safety net for these refugees. 
EIN: 36-3673594

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Tebeka

Tebeka provides free legal aid for Ethiopian Israelis throughout the country. Each year, staff attorneys respond to more than a thousand legal queries on time-sensitive matters of employment, education, housing, health, law enforcement, and other issues. Through the Free Legal Aid program, Ethiopian-Israelis gain equal access to justice by utilizing democratic processes to achieve equality before the law. This strengthens their role as empowered citizens of the State of Israel and affirms that they will not be marginalized in Israeli society. 
EIN: 06-1512486

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Uri L’Tzedek

Uri L' Tzedek is a social justice organization guided by Torah values and dedicated to combating suffering and oppression. Through community-based education, leadership development, and action, Uri L’Tzedek creates discourse, inspires leaders, and empowers the Jewish community towards creating a more just world. The organization addresses the hostile view of the increase of asylum-seekers by creating opportunities for national volunteers to become direct change makers affecting the most vulnerable asylum-seekers in our community. They have tracked the data of 80 thousand asylum-seekers we have helped with from initial contact up until their reunification with family members and first ICE court hearings.
EIN: 26-3274502

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Bay Area Organizations

Canal Alliance Logo

Canal Alliance

Canal Alliance exists to break the generational cycle of poverty for Latino immigrants and their families by lifting barriers to their success. Over the past six years, Marin has had the highest per capita number of unaccompanied minor youth (UUM) released to sponsors among all Bay Area counties. According to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, there were 358 releases in Marin County from October 1, 2021, through August 31, 2022. Among the many services Canal Alliance provides, the Immigration Legal Services (ILS) team is the only provider of comprehensive and urgent free immigration legal services in Marin County to unaccompanied minor youth (UUM) being released. 
EIN: 94-2832648

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East Bay Sanctuary Covenant

East Bay Sanctuary Covenant provides legal and social services, community organizing, and transformative education and training to support low-income immigrants, asylum seekers, and people fleeing violence and persecution in the East Bay of the San Francisco region. 
EIN: 94-3249753

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Prospera Community Foundation

Prospera partners with Latina women entrepreneurs to launch social enterprises that foster cooperation, economic independence, and well-being in immigrant communities throughout the Bay Area. The majority of Prospera’s clients face debilitating systemic obstacles to economic security and equity, including language barriers, limited access to education, fear of deportation, insufficient health care, disproportionate familial responsibilities, and the pressure of working multiple unstable jobs to make ends meet. Prospera addresses these challenges by offering Spanish-language business support, mentorship, and a peer network. Entrepreneurs receive technical assistance while joining together as women with familiar cultural, linguistic, and experiential backgrounds. 
EIN: 77-0373186

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