In 2006 we celebrated our quasquicentennial
– that’s 125 years of rescue, resettlement, and reunion. One hundred
and twenty-five is a remarkable milestone for any organization, but for
HIAS and the American Jewish community, it was an accomplishment of
which we were immensely proud.

We derived our mission from the teaching Kol Yisrael Arevim Ze
ba Ze (all Jews are responsible, one for the other), the Torah’s
injunction to welcome the stranger and the essential principle of
Pidyyon Shevuyim (redeem the captive). Since 1881, our mission has been
to aid Jews and others whose lives and freedom are in danger, and has
thus become a part of virtually every American Jewish family.

After those earliest days of HIAS in the late 1880s, when our
forbears helped Jews fleeing pogroms and famine in Czarist Russia, the
organization adapted as needed to serve Jews everywhere. During World
War I, starving European refugees were rescued and brought to lands of
freedom. Before the Holocaust, HIAS struggled to find safe havens for
Jews who could escape the growing Nazi threat, and later brought
thousands of survivors to America and elsewhere where they could
rebuild their lives.

In the 1950s HIAS smuggled Jews away from the Communists in
Cuba and Hungary. In the ’60s and ’70s, refugees from the Soviet Union,
Northern Africa and the Arab countries were helped by HIAS. In the `80s
and `90s, HIAS helped more than 300,000 Jews from the former Soviet
Union (FSU) seek resettlement from persecution, as well as provided
direct representation to hundreds of Jewish applicants for political
asylum from the FSU, Syria and Iran.

These days, HIAS faces challenges at home and abroad. The
raging national debate on comprehensive immigration reform has made
many people stop a while and think about what America means to them;
what immigrants contribute; and what we need to do as a country to stay
safe, yet welcoming as a nation. We welcome this healthy debate,
because we believe that in the end smart immigration policies will not
only keep our borders secure and our citizens safe, but they will also
allow America to continue to be the shining beacon of freedom it has
always been.

Gideon Aronoff

President and CEO