2025 was not always an easy year for HIAS+JCORE and the people we’re proud to support. With the far-right on the rise, we saw hostility, hate, and anti-refugee sentiment increasingly spread through society.
But we ensured that our Jewish values of compassion and solidarity prevailed. When others sought to sow division, we showed welcome, building a better, brighter future. Here’s a look at what we achieved together last year…
Advocating
Our advocacy team ensured that politicians and policy makers heard a strong, Jewish voice for asylum reform, meeting 27 MPs, peers, and local councillors through 2025. Throughout the year, we supported politicians to submit oral and written questions, with our work referenced three times in the House of Commons and House of Lords.
We also introduced a bespoke peer briefing service and launched our new JUMP alumni advocacy group – giving the young people we work with a safe platform to influence national policy debates.
Partnership was core throughout the year, and from joining the Together with Refugees steering group to building our Interfaith Refugee Network, we shaped the national conversation together.
In May we received widespread media coverage for our joint response to the Prime Minister’s ‘Island of Strangers’ remark. Across the year our work was covered 44 times in the media, more than double our 2024 total.
Mobilising
Refugee Shabbat 2025 was the biggest yet, with an incredible 1,000 people, and 25 groups, participating across the country. We also ran our first refugee conference in April, featuring a keynote address from then Border Security and Asylum Minister, Dame Angela Eagle DBE.
A highlight of the year followed in July, as we awarded the first publicly nominated winners of our Lord Dubs Awards, Abdullahi Yussuf and Deborah Koder.
In an important development, we were also delighted to appoint our first Community Engagement Director in summer 2025. This recruitment enabled the launch of our new Student Refugee Ambassador Programme – delivered in partnership with the Union of Jewish Students, we are working with an initial cohort of 50 students, empowering them to become the next generation of Jewish activists.
Supporting
JUMP, our transformative befriending project went from strength to strength, working with 94 young people and befrienders in 2025.
Our staff delivered 650 casework interventions, helping our young people access education, legal and medical support, and overcome issues with housing and homelessness. JUMP’s hardship fund provided a record level of support, with more than £17,000 of grants facilitated.
And we majorly expanded our ‘JUMP community’, delivering 25 events and skills workshops, including a series of employment seminars matched with a barista training course.
All of this great work enabled an exciting expansion of the programme, with JUMP now operating in Brighton as of January 2026. Watch this space!
