Since 1914, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Inc. (JDC) has served as the overseas arm of the American Jewish community. Our mission is to serve the needs of Jews throughout the world, particularly where their lives as Jews are threatened or made more difficult.

We sponsor programs of relief, rescue and renewal and help Israel address its most urgent social challenges. We are committed to the idea that all Jews are responsible for one another.

Rescue – Whenever and wherever a Jewish community is threatened, JDC offers rescue. In the early 1990s, JDC helped sustain the lives and secure the rescue of 15,000 Ethiopian Jews.

Relief – For Jewish communities in distress, JDC offers aid. For more than a decade, JDC has been providing food, clothing and medicine to some 250,000 elderly and impoverished Holocaust survivors in the former Soviet Union.

Renewal – Since the fall of communist regimes in Europe, JDC has been helping Jewish communities rediscover their heritage and rebuild a vibrant Jewish communal life.

Israel – JDC continues to provide assistance to the State of Israel as it addresses the social service needs of its most vulnerable communities: children-at-risk, struggling immigrant populations, the elderly and the disabled.

Non-Sectarian Aid – In times of crisis – natural disasters, war, famine – JDC offers aid to non-Jews to fulfill the Jewish tenet of tikkun olam, the moral responsibility to repair the world and alleviate suffering wherever it exists.

Our Operating Principles – JDC adheres to three operating principles.

We are non-partisan and apolitical.
We seek to empower local communities by creating model programs and training local leadership to run the programs. During a project’s formative stage, we handle the administrative responsibilities and evaluate the project for effectiveness.
We build coalitions with strategic partners who, ultimately, will assume responsibility for the programs.