World Jewish Relief launches coronavirus emergency appeal

British Jewry’s leading humanitarian agency is appealing for funds to support communities around the world hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

World Jewish Relief’s Covid-19 Global Emergency Appeal has received the backing of 13 leading Jewish groups, including the Jewish Leadership Council, Board of Deputies, office of Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, and synagogue movements.  

The appeal would help fund the provision of home-care, food, personal protective equipment and medical assistance to older Jewish people across Ukraine and Moldova, as well as food packages and social assistance to individuals who have lost their jobs and have no source of income.

It would also fund the supply of essential hygiene items and hand-washing and sanitation support to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, as well as cyclone victims in Mozambique and those living in poverty in Haiti.

WJR chief executive Paul Anticoni said the appeal was delayed “to ensure our community’s domestic health care charities received the attention they deserved but we now cannot wait a moment longer to assist the thousands whose lives are being catastrophically affected by the virus.”

He added: “They face the most disastrous economic slowdown in living memory with unimaginable consequences unless we act now. Our aspiration remains to do whatever we can now to ensure not one of our Jewish clients goes hungry and that those who rely on us for assistance can continue to do so in as effective a way as possible”. 

You can donate online on www.worldjewishrelief.org/covid19 or call 020 8736 1250.