March 15, 2022 — New York
American Jewish Committee (AJC) announced today grants from its #StandWithUkraine Fund to Jewish organizations providing direct humanitarian relief to Ukrainians.
The latest recipients are:
-- The Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, an AJC international partner, received a grant to support, evacuate and transport elderly Ukrainian Jews, including Holocaust survivors.
-- The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) received a grant to support its relief efforts for Ukrainian refugees.
-- The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) received a grant to sponsor a planeload of Ukrainian Jewish refugees from Poland to Israel.
AJC’s emergency #StandWithUkraine Fund, launched within days after Russia’s unprovoked and deadly invasion began, has raised to date more than $1.4 million to assist Ukrainian refugees and to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. The first recipient was IsraAID, the Israeli humanitarian group, which currently is working with Ukrainian refugees in Moldova.
“One man, megalomaniacal President Vladimir Putin, has created this human drama of biblical scale, turning the lives of millions of Ukrainians upside down. Putin is guilty of war crimes,” AJC CEO David Harris declared while visiting several reception centers for refugees in Poland last week.
Harris led an AJC group to Poland on a three-day visit to demonstrate solidarity with Ukrainians who have fled their country, seeking safety in Poland and other neighboring countries. The AJC group met with several organizations, including the JDC and JAFI, during their visit.
“As the people of Ukraine undertake a heroic stand in their fight for freedom, it’s up to us to do whatever we possibly can to assist,” said Harris.
AJC has stood in solidarity with the Ukrainian people and staunchly supported a free and democratic Ukraine for more than 30 years. In 1991, AJC became the first Jewish organization outside Ukraine to call on the United States to recognize the country's independence from Moscow. AJC was the only group in the world to set up a temporary office in Kyiv during the Maidan Revolution in 2014.
Harris expressed AJC’s “full, unreserved support for American leadership in mobilizing global solidarity and assistance for Ukraine,” in a March 7 letter to President Biden. “The stakes could not be higher for the very future of a democratic country, which was assured of its sovereignty and territorial integrity when it signed the Budapest Memorandum in 1994, together with the United States, United Kingdom, and Russian Federation.”
