Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), Inc.

For more than a century, HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, has had an extraordinary impact on millions of Jews. For generation after generation, HIAS has provided essential lifesaving services to world Jewry, through its mission of rescue, reunion and resettlement. As an expression of Jewish tradition and values, HIAS also responds to the migration needs of other people who are threatened and oppressed.

Started in New York City by a group of Jewish immigrants who found sanctuary in the United States after fleeing persecution in Europe, HIAS offered food, shelter and other aid to countless new arrivals. Since its founding in 1881, HIAS has assisted more than four and a half million people in their quest for freedom. This includes the million Jewish refugees it helped to migrate to Israel (in cooperation with the Jewish Agency for Israel), and the thousands it helped resettle in Canada, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere.

As the oldest international migration and refugee resettlement agency in the U.S., HIAS also played a major role in the rescue and relocation of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and of Jews from Morocco, Ethiopia, Egypt and the communist countries of Eastern Europe. More recently, since the mid-70s, HIAS has helped more than 300,000 Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union and its successor states escape persecution and rebuild new lives in the United States. As the migration arm of the organized American Jewish community, HIAS also advocates on behalf of refugees and migrants on the international, national and community level.

To fulfill its mission, HIAS:

Provides information and a broad program of services at all stages of the migration process for refugees and migrants;

Serves as a communications link between clients, communities of resettlement and government authorities;

Advocates for fair and just policies affecting refugees and immigrants; and

Provides a cultural orientation for those legally eligible to enter the U.S. as refugees.