Tears, testimony and triumph at Jewish refugee charity’s Lord Dubs Awards
HIAS+JCORE marked two years of impact with moving speeches, a new leadership award, and tributes to refugee champions
Refugee youth, veteran campaigners and Jewish community leaders gathered at Westminster Synagogue this week for an emotional evening honouring courage, compassion and community at the 2025 Lord Dubs Awards.
The ceremony, hosted by HIAS+JCORE, celebrated two years since the organisations joined forces under a formal partnership to build a Jewish movement for refugee rights in the UK.
Four young women supported by HIAS+JCORE’s befriending programme, JUMP, received a standing ovation as they shared how the scheme helped them overcome isolation after arriving in Britain alone. “JUMP is the best thing that ever happened to me,” said one speaker.
Project manager Eliza Ward, who leads the JUMP programme alongside Natalia Galgos and Eric Schloss, said the initiative had “nearly doubled” its impact over the past year. “We’re now supporting more young people than ever and working towards 50 matched befriending pairs.”
The evening also featured the third annual Lord Dubs Awards, which honour individuals making outstanding contributions to refugee support in the UK. This year saw the launch of a new category recognising emerging leadership.
Deborah Koder, a lifelong refugee advocate and ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) course leader at Barnet Southgate College, received the 2025 Lords Dubs Award for Outstanding Commitment. She co-founded the New North London Synagogue Drop-In for destitute asylum seekers in 2006, and later launched the Welcome Programme, which supported 15 Syrian families resettled in Barnet in 2017.
“I am deeply honoured to receive the Dubs Award for Outstanding Commitment to Refugees,” she said. “Lord Alf Dubs is a living symbol of compassion and a man whose life and legacy have shaped refugee advocacy; to receive an award in his name is both an honour and a responsibility.”
The newly introduced Dubs Legacy Award for Emerging Leaders was awarded to Abdullahi Yussuf, a legal campaigner and asylum seeker who has spent years supporting others caught in the UK’s immigration system. He volunteers at Hackney Migrant Centre, Coram, We Belong and IntoUniversity and will begin training to become a barrister in September.
“Receiving the Lord Dubs Legacy Emerging Leadership Award is such an incredible honour – not just for me, but for every migrant I have the privilege to support,” said Yussuf. “I dedicate this award to their courage, their resilience and their unwavering hope.”
The awards were presented by Lord Alf Dubs, who arrived in the UK as a child refugee on the Kindertransport. “It is a privilege to help recognise this year’s award winners,” he said. “Abdullahi and Deborah have undertaken truly exemplary work. I was particularly pleased to celebrate the next generation of leadership.”
Opening the event, HIAS+JCORE Executive Director Rabbi David Mason condemned the government’s plans to ban those arriving through irregular routes from gaining British citizenship. “Let me be clear – as a Jew, as a Rabbi, as the Executive Director of HIAS+JCORE: we see this island as one of neighbours, never of strangers.”
In a keynote address, Baroness Julia Neuberger reflected on her family’s journey to Britain as refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. “If Britain welcomed my mother, which it did, then there is an obligation to welcome the next generation,” she said. Neuberger also condemned the continued use of X-rays in asylum age assessments, calling the practice “wholly inaccurate and immoral”.
Rebecca Rifkind-Brown, HIAS+JCORE’s Advocacy Coordinator, reported on recent policy progress, including the government’s decision to extend the “move-on period” for newly recognised refugees from 28 to 56 days – a long-running campaign win. “It’s a welcome step,” she said, “but serious obstacles remain, from unsafe accommodation to barriers to citizenship.”
As the evening drew to a close, Lord Dubs praised the HIAS+JCORE team and the honourees for exemplifying the values of compassion, courage and responsibility.
“The world is not always a welcoming place,” he said. “But when people hear refugees’ stories and understand what they’ve lived through – that’s when attitudes start to change.”
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