American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Inc

Innovative social services in Israel: JDC assists vulnerable Jews throughout the world. This mission is crucial in Israel, where JDC provides aid to Israel's most vulnerable citizens, including unemployed Israelis, children at risk, elderly and Israelis with disabilities. JDC uses a unique model, which maximizes our impact. JDC promotes innovation, running pilot programs to develop and test more promising ways to deliver social services. If a new idea succeeds, the Israeli government takes over the program and implements it throughout the nation. JDC uses the acronym "DNA" to describe this approach, since our involvement with a pilot has three stages: 1) design (i.e., coming up with a new idea); 2) nurture (i.e., testing the new (cont. on Sched. O) program); and 3) accelerate (i.e., if it works, scaling it up and handing it off to be replicated). Before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and subsequent war, one million Israelis every week were touched by social services created by JDC. JDC leveraged its 100+ year presence in Israel to immediately respond to the October 7th attacks and ongoing war. In 2024, JDC's ongoing emergency response helped over 550,000 Israelis in need, including those suffering from mental distress, physically injured in combat, displaced from their homes, and many other vulnerable and disadvantaged populations.JDC focused on rebuilding northern and southern communities, working with local, regional, and the national government to get systems back into full operation to pave a path to recovery. JDC's Northern emergency operation alone assisted 18 at-risk locations across the country, directly aiding over 150,000 people, and JDC's flagship Mashiv Haruach operated in 4 frontline cities assisting over 84,000 residents and was set to expand to more northern communities, promoting resilience, healing, and economic and personal recovery.Led by JDC's disaster relief and international development unit, the organization also delivered 600,000+ pieces of medical equipment and supplies, as well as emergency response training, to 85 frontline municipalities in Israel's south & north, hospitals, and facilities housing evacuees with disabilities.

Building Jewish life: JDC strengthens Jewish communities in three ways. First, JDC helps build Jewish identity and engagement among Jews with a variety of levels of Jewish affiliation through inclusive, pluralistic programs focused on Jewish culture and traditions. Second, JDC nurtures institutions and trains leaders so communities are efficient, transparent, representative, and self-reliant. Third, JDC urges communities to care for their most vulnerable members. As a result, there are synergies between our community development and care missions: Individuals are more likely to receive care and JDC has less need to provide it if vibrant local communities take on this responsibility. Programs focus on capacity-building through efforts to support the creation and maintenance of Jewish (cont. on Sched. O) communities, to strengthen communities by building communal participation, and to improve community life. Programs include: Leadership Initiatives & Training Developing Volunteerism Camping and Retreats Informal Jewish Education (clubs and other activities) Jewish Tradition/Religion/Holiday Celebrations Jewish Community Centers Formal Jewish Education (schools) Educational Activities & Materials (publications, curricula, e-learning, web-resources, libraries, etc.)In 2024, JDC continued to aid Jews, Jewish communities, and ex-pat Israelis facing rising antisemitism around the world. This work included: safe accommodation for Israelis soccer fans brutally attacked in Amsterdam; addressing post-October 7 security needs in Turkey; trauma support for local Jewish community members following the murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan in Dubai; and the Stronger Together conference gathering 60+ European Jewish community leaders from 26 countries in Israel for crisis preparedness.In 2024, JDC also kept Jewish life thriving through hundreds of Jewish cultural and educational initiatives, volunteer and youth programs, and holiday celebration across the former Soviet Union. This included maintaining wide-ranging programming for tens of thousands of Jews in conflict-ravaged Ukraine and maintaining JDC's robust volunteer network there, which numbers almost 3,000 volunteers across 26 cities, as well as over 1,300 members of Active Jewish Teens (AJT) and AJT Junior. JDC continued to keep Jewish life thriving in Africa and Asia, supporting programs such as the Evelyn Peters Jewish Community Center (JCC) in India, day camps in Morocco and Turkey, and Jewish girls' education in Tunisia.