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 * Emergency Response
 * Center for Refugee Policy
 * Refugee FAQs
 * Contact Us

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HIAS

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 * Who We Are
   
   
    * WHO WE ARE
      
      Drawing on our Jewish values and history, HIAS stands for a world in which
      refugees find welcome, safety, and opportunity.
      
      Learn More
   
   
    * EXPLORE
      
      * Careers
      * Financial Statements & Reports
      * HIAS Foundation
      * HIAS Economic Advancement Fund
   
   
    * ABOUT US
      
      OUR HISTORY
      
      Originally founded to assist Jews fleeing pogroms in Eastern Europe, today
      HIAS works around the world to assist displaced people of all backgrounds.
      
      Learn More
      
      
      MISSION & VALUES
      
      HIAS draws on our mission and values to serve over one million people in
      more than 20 countries around the world each year.
      
      Learn More

 * What We Do
   
   
    * WHAT WE DO
      
      HIAS provides vital services to refugees and asylum seekers around the
      world and advocates for their fundamental rights so they can rebuild their
      lives.
      
      Learn More
   
   
    * PRIORITIES
      
      * Resettle Refugees
        
         * WELCOME CORPS
           
           Through the Welcome Corps, groups of everyday Americans can sponsor
           refugees and help them build new lives in communities across the
           U.S.Learn More
        
         * RESETTLEMENT PARTNERS
           
           In communities across the United States, our network of resettlement
           partner agencies helps resettled refugees rebuild their lives and
           find welcome, safety, and opportunity.Learn More
        
        Resettle Refugees
      * End Gender-Based Violence
        
         * LGBTQ REFUGEES
           
           HIAS supports LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers to access their
           rights and rebuild their lives in dignity.Learn More
        
         * NO TO GBV, YES TO ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
           
           A close collaboration in Ecuador between HIAS and UN Women promotes
           economic empowerment as an effective strategy to stop GBV.Learn More
        
        End Gender-Based Violence
      * Provide Legal Support
        
         * LEGAL SERVICES IN THE U.S.
           
           Learn more about legal services that HIAS offers in the U.S. — and
           how to get help from our team of dedicated lawyers in New York and
           Maryland.Learn More
        
         * STATELESSNESS
           
           Millions of people around the world are denied basic rights because
           they are not citizens of any country.Learn More
        
        Provide Legal Support
      * Support Community Mental Health
        
         * WHY COMMUNITY IS SO CRUCIAL TO REFUGEES’ MENTAL HEALTH
           
           HIAS’ community-based mental health programs promote the well-being
           of refugees affected by crisis and conflict.Learn More
        
         * WATCH: CARING FOR THE WHOLE PERSON
           
           Watch a video to learn about HIAS’ dedication to refugees and their
           well-being.Learn More
        
        Support Community Mental Health
      * Promote Economic Inclusion
        
         * THE GRADUATION MODEL APPROACH
           
           Our Graduation Model Approach provides refugees around the world with
           tools to lift themselves out of poverty and to integrate into host
           communities.Learn More
        
         * THE FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS OF OUR ECONOMIC INCLUSION PROGRAMS
           
           HIAS has helped over 400,000 participants to get out of poverty, find
           employment, start a business, and achieve self-reliance.Learn More
        
        Promote Economic Inclusion
      * Advocate for Refugee Rights
        
         * SUPPORT THE ASYLUM SEEKER WORK AUTHORIZATION ACT
           
           Tell Congress to support the Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act,
           which would make it easier for asylum seekers to obtain a work permit
           and contribute to their communities.Learn More
        
         * TAKE ACTION
           
           From sending letters to your lawmaker to getting more involved in
           your community, we need you to speak up for refugees and asylum
           seekers.Learn More
        
        Advocate for Refugee Rights
      * Respond to Emergencies
        
         * EMERGENCY RESPONSE IN ISRAEL
           
           HIAS is working to ensure support following the mass terrorist
           violence in Israel on October 7, 2023.Learn More
        
         * SUDANESE REFUGEES IN CHAD
           
           Since April 2023, more than 400,000 refugees have crossed the border
           into Chad. Learn about HIAS’ response.Learn More
        
        Respond to Emergencies
   
   
    * OUR WORK
      
      CENTER FOR REFUGEE POLICY
      
      The center is dedicated to generating new ideas to inform and educate
      policymakers on issues related to advancing refugee rights across the
      globe.
      
      Learn More
      
      
      PRIVATE SPONSORSHIP
      
      Help integrate refugees into communities through HIAS-led private
      sponsorship groups.
      
      Learn More

 * Where We Work
   
   
    * WHERE WE WORK
      
      HIAS provides vital services to displaced people and communities impacted
      by displacement in more than 20 countries around the world.
      
      Learn More
   
   
    * REGIONS
      
      * United States
        
        UNITED STATES
        
         * Resettlement in the U.S.
         * Resettlement Partners
         * Legal Programs in the U.S.
         * Learn More
        
         * Private Sponsorship in the U.S. Learn More
         * Legal Services in the U.S. Learn More
        
        Learn More
      * Europe
        
        EUROPE
        
         * Austria
         * Greece
         * Moldova
         * Poland
         * Romania
         * United Kingdom
         * Ukraine
         * HIAS Europe
        
         * Non-Ukrainian Asylum Seekers Left Out in the Cold Read More
         * After Fleeing Alone, a Ukrainian Finds ‘Family’ in Brussels Read More
        
        HIAS Europe
      * Latin America & Caribbean
        
        LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN
        
         * Aruba
         * Colombia
         * Costa Rica
         * Ecuador
         * Guatemala
         * Guyana
         * Honduras
         * Mexico
         * Panama
         * Peru
         * Venezuela
         * Learn More
        
         * Record Displacement Levels across Latin America and the Caribbean
           Read More
         * Celebrating 20 Years of HIAS in Latin America Read More
        
        Learn More
      * Africa & Middle East
        
        AFRICA & MIDDLE EAST
        
         * Chad
         * Israel
         * Kenya
         * South Africa
        
         * Photos: Sudan’s Violence Fuels Refugee Crisis in Chad Read More
         * The News in Israel Is Terrible. HIAS Is Here To Help Read More
   
   
    * OUR WORK
      
      ISRAEL CRISIS RESPONSE
      
      HIAS is currently responding to the humanitarian emergency across the
      country as a result of recent violent attacks against the civilian
      population.
      
      Learn More
      
      
      THE DARIÉN GAP
      
      HIAS is working across the Darién Gap to provide refugees and asylum
      seekers with gender-based violence prevention and response, legal support,
      and mental health services.
      
      Learn More

 * Latest
   
   
    * LEARN MORE
      
      * Israel
      * Ukraine
      * LGBTQ Refugees
      * Darien Gap
      * Private Sponsorship
      See All Latest
   
    * * GENEROUS GRANTS HELP REFUGEE BUSINESSES THRIVE IN THE U.S.
        
        HIAS EAF collaborated with The Braun Foundation to provide $54,000 in
        grants that supported growth & hurricane recovery for 11 refugee
        entrepreneurs.
        
        Read More
      
      * DEEP DIVE: THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT
        
        There is a common misconception that refugees are an economic drain on
        the U.S. economy. In fact, the opposite is true.
        
        Read More
      
      * ETHICAL STORYTELLING: COMMUNICATING THE STORIES OF REFUGEES
        
        A new guide provides details in how to tell stories about refugees with
        responsibility and professionalism.
        
        Read More

 * How to Help
   
   
    * HOW TO HELP
      
      Together, we can help create a world in which refugees find welcome,
      safety, and opportunity. Join us.
      
      Donate Now
   
   
    * GET INVOLVED
      
      * Volunteer
      * Attend an Event
      * Sponsor a Refugee
      * Congregational Opportunities
      * Educational Resources
      * TAKE ACTION
   
   
    * HIGHLIGHTS
      
      HOW TO HELP REFUGEES AFTER THE U.S. ELECTIONS
      
      Explore ways to help refugees, asylum seekers, and other displaced people
      find welcome.
      
      Read More
      
      
      REFUGEE SHABBAT
      
      Refugee Shabbat (February 28 - March 1, 2025) is an invitation to express
      your solidarity with the global Jewish movement for refugee protection and
      welcome.
      
      Read More

 * Donate
    * Donate Now
      * Become a Monthly Donor
      * Employer Match
      * HIAS Foundation
      * Corporate Partnerships
      * Other Ways to Give

 * Emergency Response
 * Center for Refugee Policy
 * Refugee FAQs
 * Contact Us

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OUR HISTORY


From Storefront Charities to Global Advocate


HIAS is the world’s oldest refugee agency. Though the organization was formally
incorporated as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in 1903, that founding moment
represented a continuation of several predecessor organizations that had worked
through the 1880s and 1890s to assist Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia and Eastern
Europe. While those arriving in the United States at that time were refugees,
the world did not yet have a legal concept for people who needed safe refuge
outside their homelands.

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 with thousands of
employees dedicated to helping forcibly displaced people around the world in
keeping with the organization’s Jewish ethical roots.


1870-1900

c1895 Men with baggage at Ellis Island, being helped by HIAS. (YIVO HIAS Photo
Coll)

Welcoming the Stranger: Humble Beginnings in New York

c1895 Men with baggage at Ellis Island, being helped by HIAS. (YIVO HIAS Photo
Coll)

By the time Ellis Island became the official immigration inspection and
processing station in New York City in 1892, HIAS predecessor organizations
including the Hebrew Sheltering House Association (organized by Eastern European
Jews in 1889 under the Hebrew name Hachnosas Orchim) and its Woman’s Auxiliary
had already begun providing meals, transportation, and jobs to members of the
fast-growing Russian Jewish population.


1900-1914

Passover Seder organized by HIAS on Ellis Island, New York City harbor, April 21
1913. (YIVO/HIAS)

Meeting a Need: HIAS Expands and Builds Community

Passover Seder organized by HIAS on Ellis Island, New York City harbor, April 21
1913. (YIVO/HIAS)

In 1902, community members gathered in a shop on the Lower East Side and started
a group that would come to be known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. They
established a shelter with dormitory space, a soup kitchen and clothing for any
needy Jew. Organizers set up a bureau on Ellis Island in 1904 to assist new
arrivals, providing translation services, guiding immigrants through medical
screenings, arguing before the Boards of Special Inquiry to prevent
deportations, and obtaining bonds to guarantee employable status. The
organization also found relatives for immigrants who were detained because they
had neither money nor friends to claim them. The group became famous worldwide –
and in many languages – as HIAS, the abbreviation that was its first telegraphic
address.


1914-1950

Refugees en route to freedom, 1949 (HIAS)

Global Shifts: Wars, Restrictions, and Unprecedented Change

Refugees en route to freedom, 1949 (HIAS)

The outbreak of World War I brought the largest influx of Jews from Eastern
Europe yet: more than 138,000 arrived in the United States in 1914 alone.
Shortly after the war, though, nativist politicians enacted restrictions
limiting the number of immigrants to no more than 2 percent of the total of each
nationality residing in the U.S. in 1890, severely limiting the entry of Jews
from Eastern Europe. Because of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and the
subsequent National Origins Act of 1924, few refugees were resettled to the
United States from that time through World War II, but HIAS was able to work
through its European arm, known as HICEM, to help 250,000 men, women, and
children to escape Nazi persecution, and provided refugee services to those who
were saved.

After the war, HIAS was instrumental in evacuating the Displaced Persons camps
in Europe and aiding in the resettlement of some 150,000 people to 330
communities in the U.S., as well as Canada, Australia, and South America, and,
eventually, to Israel following its founding in 1948.


1950-2000

HIAS helped Ethiopian refugees, like these from 1981, through the late 1970s and
1980s. (HIAS)

The Right to Seek and Enjoy Asylum: New Policies Propel HIAS' Work Forward

HIAS helped Ethiopian refugees, like these from 1981, through the late 1970s and
1980s. (HIAS)

After World War II, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1951
Refugee Convention became the basis for international refugee law, providing the
foundation for HIAS’ future work to assist refugees no matter where they were.

On August 24, 1954, seeking to avoid duplication within the Jewish community’s
efforts for displaced persons, HIAS, the United Service for New Americans
(USNA), and the overseas migration service of the American Joint Distribution
Committee (JDC) merged to form the “United HIAS Service,” the name under which
the agency would operate until it reverted back to “HIAS” in 1975.

In 1965, thanks to the strong advocacy of HIAS and others, U.S. lawmakers
replaced the National Origins Act with new legislation, the Immigration and
Nationality Act of 1965, ending decades of discriminatory nationality quotas. 

During the 1950s and ‘60s, HIAS assisted Jews fleeing such countries as Hungary,
Egypt, Cuba, Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Czechoslovakia and Poland. In 1975,
following the fall of Saigon, the State Department requested HIAS’ assistance
with the resettlement of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian refugees in the U.S.
In 1977, HIAS helped evacuate the Jews of Ethiopia, which culminated in several
dramatic airlifts to Israel. Two years later, the overthrow of the Shah of Iran
precipitated a slow but steady emigration of Jews escaping an increasingly
oppressive theocracy, and HIAS facilitated the resettlement of thousands of
Persian Jews with close family in the U.S.

While the Refugee Convention dated back to 1951, the United States only became a
signatory in 1968. Indeed, it was only after President Jimmy Carter signed the
Refugee Act of 1980 that the right to asylum became codified in U.S. law. The
act also established a process of resettling refugees to the U.S. where the
government worked in partnership with private resettlement agencies, including
HIAS. 

The Jews of the former Soviet Union found their way to freedom with the help of
HIAS in two modern waves, with over 400,000 migrating with HIAS assistance
through Vienna and Rome to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
and elsewhere. The first wave peaked in 1979, coming to an abrupt halt a year
later when the USSR once again closed its doors. The second wave, which began in
the late ’80s, continued until emigration restrictions were finally lifted by
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

HIAS helped over 400,000 Jews emigrate from the USSR.


2000-PRESENT

Civilians flee the city of Irpin, Kiev, Ukraine, during heavy bombardment by the
Russian Army, March 5, 2022. (AG for HIAS)

The Modern Refugee Crisis: Expanding Our Global Mission

Civilians flee the city of Irpin, Kiev, Ukraine, during heavy bombardment by the
Russian Army, March 5, 2022. (AG for HIAS)

Continuing from its work in the 1990s, HIAS expanded its resettlement work to
include assistance to non-Jewish refugees from the former Yugoslavia, East
Africa, southeast Asia and the Middle East. HIAS also began working in countries
refugees were fleeing to, helping identify those in immediate danger and
bringing them to safety. In 2002, HIAS established operations in Kenya to
provide protection to refugees from numerous African countries plagued by
conflict, helping to resettle the most vulnerable and providing mental health
and social services. The HIAS Refugee Trust of Kenya was the first HIAS program
in decades to focus exclusively on assisting non-Jewish refugees.

The following year, HIAS entered into its first partnership in decades with the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to assist asylum seekers from Ukraine. Over
the next two decades, partnering with the UN Refugee Agency to help refugees
regardless of religion or ethnicity became HIAS’ way of working; assisting
refugees not because they are Jewish, but because HIAS is Jewish.

In 2003, HIAS expanded into the Latin American and Caribbean region with the
opening of its office in Ecuador, which was part of the response to the refugee
crisis caused by the conflict in Colombia. Since then, HIAS’ presence in the
region has grown to include 11 country offices — reaching from Mexico and
Central America to South America and the Caribbean. Today, HIAS is one of the
leading agencies working to protect displaced people across the Latin American
and Caribbean region.

With the Fall of Kabul in August of 2021 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in
February 2022, HIAS rose to two enormous challenges, mobilizing its national and
international networks to resettle Afghans and provide humanitarian aid to
refugees from Ukraine in several neighboring countries as well as internally
displaced persons inside Ukraine. HIAS also launched a new initiative, Welcome
Circles, working with local communities across the U.S. and Europe to resettle
Afghan and Ukrainian refugees, to complement the HIAS network, consisting of
Jewish family service and other local partners.


ONWARD

Zubair Babkarkhail and family left Afghanistan as Kabul was falling. His was one
of the families that HIAS helped resettle around the U.S. in 2022. (Stephanie
Strasburg for HIAS)

The Future

Zubair Babkarkhail and family left Afghanistan as Kabul was falling. His was one
of the families that HIAS helped resettle around the U.S. in 2022. (Stephanie
Strasburg for HIAS)

In 2024, the global number of displaced persons topped 120 million for the first
time and continues to grow. In recent years, nativist politicians around the
world, along with social, economic, and climatic crises, have increased the
pressure on all refugees, asylum seekers and people who have been displaced in
any way.

HIAS, too, became the target of anti-immigrant sentiment when, in 2018, the
gunman who murdered 11 worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue
attacked HIAS’ support for refugees in online posts just before the shootings.
In the wake of that horrific act of violence, HIAS built on the public’s
newfound awareness and expanded the reach and scope of the organization’s work
in the U.S. and across the globe.

During this challenging time, HIAS also mounted a legal challenge to President
Trump’s refugee ban, and worked to counter the Trump administration’s deep cuts
to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

Today, HIAS has more than 1,800 staff members providing services to refugees and
other displaced people in more than 20 countries. In the U.S., our refugee
resettlement network has grown to include 30 metropolitan areas across the
country. HIAS has also received tremendous support from the American Jewish
community and from thousands of Jewish clergy members, with more than 475
synagogues in our network.

Working with hundreds of government, corporate, and other partners, HIAS now
helps more than a million people each year around the world.

VISIT THE HIAS ARCHIVES AT THE AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY


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HELP HIAS PROVIDE VITAL SERVICES TO REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS AROUND THE WORLD

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International Headquarters

1300 Spring Street, Suite 500
Silver Spring, MD 20910
301-844-7300

New York Office

212-967-4100

Information Helpline

800-HIAS-714
info@hias.org




HIAS STANDS FOR A WORLD IN WHICH REFUGEES FIND WELCOME, SAFETY, AND OPPORTUNITY.

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