Syrian civil war refugees in Jordan need more Jewish support, coalition says

 Refugees in Jordan who were displaced by the Syrian civil war need more support from the Jewish community, a coalition of 16 Jewish organizations said.

The Jewish Coalition for Syrian Refugees in Jordan, a sub-group of the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief (JCDR), has already distributed more than $200,000 to aid programs supporting Syrian civil war refugees. The aid programs provide the refugees with food, water, shelter, medical care, clothing, and other services, according to JCDR. Dr. Georgette Bennett, president and founder of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, made a $100,000 donation towards the coalition’s Syrian refugee efforts.

“It is an imperative of Judaism to not stand by idly in the face of a humanitarian nightmare of this magnitude,” Bennett, a child of Holocaust survivors, said in a statement.

Organizations who are part of the Jewish Coalition for Syrian Refugees in Jordan include the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Jewish Federations of North America, Mazon, Rabbinical Assembly, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Union for Reform Judaism, United Synagogue Conservative Judaism, Ve’ahavta, World Jewish Congress, and World Jewish Relief.

“As the Coalition continues its critical efforts to care for these refugees, broader Jewish community and other faith group support reinforces the notion that we cannot turn away from one of the largest humanitarian crises of our time, in the midst of a dangerous and complex ongoing civil war,” Alan H. Gill, CEO of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, said in a statement.