As a UK based international Jewish charity, WJR is committed to meeting the needs of individuals and communities living in abject poverty, assisting them in the transformation of their lives and livelihoods of primarily, but not exclusively, Jewish communities across the globe. At times of major international disaster, WJR also leads the UK Jewish community’s emergency response, providing effective and appropriate interventions to those suffering from the effects of catastrophe.

World Jewish Relief was originally called the Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBF) and was founded in 1933. CBF was founded following a meeting of UK Jewish community leaders with Members of Parliament. Founding members included Simon Marks, chairman and managing director of Marks & Spencer, Sir Robert Waley Cohen, managing director of Shell Oil, Lionel and Anthony de Rothschild, managing partners of N M Rothschild & Sons, and Dr Chaim Weizmann, who would later become the first President of Israel. Originally intended to provide support for German Jews who were immigrating to the British Mandate of Palestine, CBF originally funded projects such at Hebrew University, the Technion, and the Maccabi World Union so that these organisations could provide immigrants with the skills and experience needed to become functional members of society in Palestine.

Due to funding problems, CBF increasingly turned its efforts away from Palestine and towards Britain. By 1935, CBF and the Jewish Refugees Committee (JRC) were funding a programme that placed Jewish scholars in British universities willing to take on faculty members and graduate students. The two programmes placed more than 200 refugees at universities, including Ernst Chain, whose subsequent work on penicillin earned him a Nobel Prize.

CBF coordinated with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in 1936 to create the Council for German Jewry, which carried out much of the pre-war operations to emigrate German Jews. Resulting from the German-Austrian Anschluss in 1938, thousands of new refugees in Austria looked to emigrate. Due to the volume of need for refugees, the Council for German Jewry attended the Évian Conference in France to push world leaders for less restrictive immigration policies, but they were largely ignored The advent of Kristallnacht later in that year exacerbated the refugee crisis, leaving the JDC overwhelmed in both financial and human resource capacity. The Council for German Jewry was eventually able to persuade the UK Home Office to admit Jews regardless of financial backing, and consequently 68,000 Jews registered before the start of war. For its part, CBF worked with the NGO Save the Children to establish the Inter-Aid Committee, which helped 471 Jewish and Christian children go to boarding schools in Britain.

Works:

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 prompted CBF to shift the focus of its aid efforts to support the two million Jews living there. CBF changed its name to World Jewish Relief in 1994 and has since the early 1990s focused on addressing the causes of poverty in the communities in which it works, in addition to meeting immediate needs. World Jewish Relief integrated with World Jewish Aid in 2007. World Jewish Relief currently funds three main types of projects: meeting immediate needs of vulnerable communities, securing sustainable livelihoods for those in poverty, and responding to international disasters.

• -Meeting Immediate Needs: World Jewish Relief works with vulnerable communities in the Former Soviet Union (FSU), primarily in Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, and Georgia, who often depend on meagre state pensions or welfare entitlements. In those areas, the charity funds homecare, medical expenses and food for clients, and supplements this programme through a Gifts in Kind programme that delivers donated materials directly to the communities in which it works. World Jewish Relief also works in communities to repair and renovate cold and insecure homes, offering their residents relief from the harsh winter weather conditions. The charity also works with partners in Ukraine to provide support for socially isolated communities, and it works with partners in Ukraine, Moldova and India to empower people living with disabilities there, with services including job training, specialist therapy, and wheelchair accessibility improvements.
• -Sustainable Livelihoods: World Jewish Relief launched its Livelihood Development Programme (LDP) in 2009, which currently operates in Moldova and Ukraine. The Moldova LDP works with women from vulnerable communities to provide job training, as well as Romanian language instruction, with the goal of program graduates finding employment and increased income. The Ukraine LDP works with men and women to provide job trainings and establish job centres in local Jewish Community Centres. World Jewish Relief also works with partners in Rwanda to provide educational and vocational training to orphaned and street children.
• -Disaster Response: World Jewish Relief leads the British Jewish community's response to international disasters, recently working in Japan, Pakistan, Haiti, and countries in East Africa. In Japan, World Jewish Relief worked with Save the Children to establish spaces for displaced children following the 2011 tsunami there. After the 2010 floods in Pakistan, World Jewish Relief worked with partners to provide immediate needs to displaced communities in Bagh District and restore homes that had been damaged or destroyed. WJR still works with partners there to train women affected by the flood in embroidery techniques. World Jewish Relief worked with Merlin following the 2010 Haiti earthquake to provide medical services for those in need, and it worked primarily in Kenya with partners to provide food services for those suffering from the East Africa food crisis.