Our History
What is HIAS+JCORE's background?
HIAS+JCORE, a new partnership between the Jewish Council for Racial Equality (JCORE), and HIAS, was launched in March 2023. Both organisations have a long history of supporting and empowering refugees. Click here to find out more about HIAS, the world’s oldest refugee agency, founded in the late 19th century.
JCORE’s history goes back to 1976, when the organisation was established as the ‘Jewish Social Responsibility Council’ in Leeds. Read on to learn more about our work ever since.
- Dr Edie Friedman founds the Jewish Social Responsibility Council in Leeds, West Yorkshire in 1976.
- In 1978, holds a ‘West-Indian Jewish evening’ attended by around 300 people from each community. The Board of Deputies are among the event’s speakers.
- The organisation also initiates English classes and social activities for Vietnamese refugees, to help them integrate into their new lives in Leeds.
- The organisation linked counsellors working with Holocaust survivors and those treating recent victims of torture.
- The Refugee Doctors project was first launched. In its initial iteration, Refugee Doctors produced a guide and worked to put the issue on the medical agenda. JCORE, and later HIAS+JCORE, ran subsequent schemes, which provided mentoring to help people with refugee status requalify as medical professionals in the UK.
- Started the Black-Jewish-Asian Forum (initially known as the Black Jewish Forum). The group was later relaunched as BAJA – the Black, Asian, Jewish Alliance, in 2018.
- In 1994, the charity was renamed as JCORE (The Jewish Council for Racial Equality).
- The organisation continued to respond to the changing origins of refugees and people seeking asylum in UK. A mobile counselling unit was launched for Bosnian refugees who had fled conflict in the Balkans.
- A scheme was initiated to supply basic necessities to destitute asylum seekers.
- In 2004, JCORE introduces the ‘Connections Exhibition’. This travelling exhibit explored the shared experiences of Black, Asian and Jewish communities in Britain. It was seen by more than 10,000 visitors, including hundreds of schoolchildren, in more than fifty museums, schools and libraries across the UK.
- The organisation further develops its education output. It produces the first ever race-equality resources for early years, primary and secondary schools, and continues to deliver sessions in schools, synagogues and youth groups.
- In 2007, JCORE introduces JUMP, a befriending scheme inspired by the Kindertransport. JUMP works with asylum seeking and refugee young people who live in London and are separated from their families. We have now supported more than 300 such young people through JUMP.
- In 2008 Edie Friedman and Reva Klein co-author ‘Reluctant Refuge: The Story of Asylum in Britain’.
- Refugee Doctors is relaunched as a mentoring scheme. JCORE runs conferences for mentors and mentees through the decade.
- The organisation creates a schools Kindertransport oral history project.
- JCORE helps to co-ordinate the Jewish response to the ‘refugee crisis’ and launches the ‘Support Refugees’ project, which includes a ‘one stop shop’ website. Our campaigning receives mentions from then Prime Minister David Cameron in 2016, and then Home Affairs Select Committee Chair Yvette Cooper.
- In 2018, launches ‘Young Neighbours’, which brought Jewish and Muslim teenagers together in social action for refugees.
- In 2020, helps lead the Jewish community’s response against institutional racism, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. With JW3, runs ‘Black Lives Matter Everywhere’, a panel event attended by more than 3,000 people.
- In 2021, raises over £25,000 to help provide essential items to Afghan families stranded in hotels.
- Campaigns against a wave of hostile asylum legislation, including the Nationality and Borders Act and ‘Illegal’ Migration Act, and leads the Jewish campaign in opposition to the Rwanda plan.
- In 2023, launches the next chapter of JCORE’s history, with a new partnership with HIAS. The organisation is renamed ‘HIAS+JCORE’. Dr Edie Friedman retires as Executive Director, taking on a new role within HIAS+JCORE as Honorary President. Rabbi David Mason is welcomed as Executive Director, with Amos Schonfield also joining as Deputy Director.
- In 2024, introduces HIAS’ ‘Welcome Circles’ project to the UK.