Tzedek, the UK Jewish charity founded 32 years ago to help alleviate poverty in the developing world, has closed in the wake of the pandemic.
In a message posted on its website, the charity’s chair Miles Webber explained, “We recognise it is no longer right to ask the Jewish community to choose between different global development charities which are all doing great work. For this reason, after serious consideration, we will be closing the curtains on an era.”
In the year ending Mach 2019, the charity raised £493,000 and £440,000 the following year, but that dropped to £277,000 in 2021, the first year of the pandemic.
Mr Webber said, “Headwinds have taken our community’s focus in new, meaningful directions.”
The pandemic “brought inward attention to vital life-saving measures in areas like healthcare, protecting the elderly and other vulnerable populations within the UK.
“Large foundations issued emergency funds for the rapid construction of infrastructure to address inequalities in our own country, prioritising domestic causes. The overlapping arrival of refugees from Afghanistan, and then Ukraine, rightly took the spotlight within the Jewish and broader conversation.”
He added, “We have also witnessed a significant shift in attention away from our work, which builds on steady, sustained change over time, and requires communal commitment to maintain.
“Additionally, the pandemic has affected our ability to hold fundraising events, to travel to our development partners overseas and to operate in-person youth programmes.”
Through the Covid-19 crisis, Tzedek had offered “funds to provide food, PPE, and preventative education to help manage the effects of Covid among the world’s most vulnerable”, he said.
World Jewish Relief will now take over two of its programmes, the delivery of the Chief Rabbi’s Ben Azzai scheme which promotes social responsibility young people: and its partnership with the Ghana Developing Communities Association.
Jude Williams, a former executive director of Tzedek, said she had "mixed feelings" at the news.
"I am sure WJR will take good care of those programmes and they will be well integrated into their own work. Is there a place for a Jewish organisation that is solely outward-facing? We thought so but apparently not.
"And that's probably for a number of reasons. I don't believe it's because the Jewish community doesn't care about the rest of society and the most vulnerable around the world. More likely Jews are finding other ways to express that value we often call tikkun olam.
"I do know funders and supporters care about duplication, about using limited resources well. So I'd hope that WJR taking over the Ben Azzia programme and work in Ghana will be a positive thing."
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