We Rescue Jews in Danger

Happening Now: Our Ukraine Crisis Response >>

Our priority is to help Jewish communities live safely where they choose, whether it’s Caracas, Kyiv, or Casablanca. But when things get tough, Jewish communities around the world know they can count on us most — because we are there and we’re part of them. We have the reach, the relationships, and the resources to act. Out of a deep commitment to save Jewish lives, we’ve launched numerous daring operations into crisis zones since our founding in World War I to do just that.

And when there are threats to Jews or Jewish life today, we’re there with boots on the ground and expertise to be a lifeline or take them out of harm’s way. For more than a century, we have been the Global Jewish 9-1-1. And we will continue to be there at a moment’s notice, because our future needs us now.

We rescue Jews in danger, whatever the crisis and wherever we are needed.

Our Impact in Numbers

1,000,000+

Jewish people rescued by JDC and its partners since its founding in 1914

227,000,000

pounds of scarce supplies JDC shipped to Europe to feed concentration camp survivors and other Jews impacted by Nazism

14,000

Jews airlifted out of Ethiopia over a 36-hour period during Operation Solomon, a rescue mission during the rebel takeover of Addis Ababa in 1991

Conflict in Eastern Ukraine

When Ukraine fell into armed conflict in 2013, these conditions created a humanitarian crisis for thousands of Jews living in the eastern part of the country, placing them in harm’s way and forcing them from their homes. JDC helped to evacuate elderly and vulnerable residents from the eastern region, and assisted these refugees with food, medicine, and other essentials. JDC coordinated much of this work through its vast network of Hesed social welfare centers, which assist vulnerable Jews all across the former Soviet Union.

A Jewish woman in a winter coat dabbing her eye in Eastern Ukraine while it’s snowing outside.

A Century of Rescue

From its founding in 1914, rescue has been JDC’s foremost mission. JDC has rescued and/or aided refugees—from Nazi Europe in the 1930s and 1940s; Yemen in the late 1940s; Hungary in the mid-1950s; Ethiopia and the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s; and elsewhere around the world. JDC provided vital services including food, clothing, medication, shelter, and emigration assistance to those on their way to a new home.

EXPLORE PHOTO GALLERY

Aiding Displaced Jews

For more than a century, JDC has helped relocate and rehabilitate Jews displaced by war and conflict. The catastrophic events of the Holocaust led to the displacement of Jews all across Europe. After the war, we provided humanitarian aid and cultural programming at Jewish Displaced Persons (DP) camps, as well as food, clothing, schools, and vocational training programs. We also supported the revival of Jewish learning and religious renewal.

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Jewish refugees getting food at a JDC displaced persons camp after World World II.

Operation Solomon

Rebels almost overtook Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, when JDC crafted a strategic and decisive plan to rescue the city’s Jews. For months prior to the operation, JDC worked with the Israeli government, the Jewish Agency, and the American Jewish community, planning its airlift of over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews out of Ethiopia within the span of 36 hours. Nonstop flights of 35 Israeli aircraft brought the city’s Jewish community to safety in Israel. What resulted was one of the fastest and most successful rescue missions in modern history.

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A JDC volunteer carrying an Ethiopian-Jewish boy down from a flight during Operation Solomon.

Operation Magic Carpet

JDC planned, organized, and financed the passage of 48,000 Yemenite Jews from the British Protectorate of Aden to Israel. Between December 1948 and September 19, 1950, close to 450 flights were chartered, airlifting nearly the entire Jewish community from Yemen to Israel. Yemenite Jews crossed deserts, mountains, and borders, often on foot, in order to arrive in Aden, from where they were taken on the “wings of eagles” to the newly formed State of Israel.

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