HIAS | First One Through

The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society started 130 years ago to help Jews fleeing pogroms in Soviet Russia and Eastern Europe settle in the United States. It was founded by Jews to help Jews immigrating to a new land.

The agency lost its mission decades ago when newly arriving Jewish immigrants needed much less help because there were very few Jews fleeing to the United States, they came with means, or they had family already established in the United States which helped them acclimate to the new environment.

Refusing to shut down, the agency rebranded itself as “HIAS” and morphed into a “multi-continent, multi-pronged humanitarian aid and advocacy organization with thousands of employees.” It recast its mission statement to be “Drawing on our Jewish values and history, and working with host communities, HIAS provides vital services to refugees, asylum seekers, and other forcibly displaced and stateless persons around the world and advocates for their fundamental rights so they can rebuild their lives.”

The agency is no longer Jews helping Jewish immigrants but everybody helping everybody.

In 2024, that includes members of Hamas and descendants of Palestinian refugees living in the West Bank.

On July 22, 2024, HIAS broadcast a note to its mailing list and on its website “How to help civilians in Gaza.” It specifically highlighted that “in the aftermath of the attacks on October 7, the humanitarian conditions in Gaza quickly became extreme, and the humanitarian crisis there continues to worsen by the day,” without mentioning that the October 7 massacre was launched from Gaza with the broad support of Gazans.

HIAS added that Gaza is outside of its area of influence in that “HIAS does not work in Gaza, but it is clear just how urgently families in Gaza need help. HIAS knows trusted partners who have been providing life-saving aid to civilians caught in the crossfire.” It listed Catholic Relief Services and Global Communities as agencies to which it would forward monies.

Since 1994, Global Communities “advises the World Bank on institutionalizing civic engagement in water sector management and helped establish a national youth organization focused on voluntarism, democracy and good governance.” It touted its work with Palestinian Arabs who voted the political-terrorist genocidal group Hamas to 58% of parliament which rules over Gaza, and a corrupt Fatah party leading the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, whose president has refused to hold elections since 2009.

Despite no longer being a Jewish organization and not helping Jewish immigrants, HIAS is a member of the Conference of Presidents Of Major Jewish Organizations. The agency’s inclusion has long been a gross oversight, as the HIAS brand and inclusion in the COP misleads donors into believing that it has the same mission as it did at its founding.

As HIAS has now taken a further step of raising money for a group which has been working with Hamas in its efforts of “democracy and good governance” after the October 7 massacre, it is time to expunge it from the Conference of Presidents and everyone’s donor list.

In some ways, HIAS is a microcosm of many secular American Jews who recast themselves as universalists shrouded in “Jewish Values” helping anyone, including those who favor slaughtering fellow Jews.

ACTION ITEM

Write and call the Conference of Presidents to remove HIAS from its member list, at info@conferenceofpresidents.org and 212-318-6111